Dead Alone
by choices2make
Summary: Sookie makes choices that tear her from everything she knows and set into motion changes that never could have been predicted. How will she evolve and can she ever balance her heart's desire with her need for secrecy. Set partway through Dead Reckoning.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This story begins right after Sookie reads Adele's letter and finds the cluviel dor in Dead Reckoning. When I decided to break the story line at this point, there were two main plot details I felt were hanging from the original story, Sookie's phone call and her email to Amelia. So in this version, Sookie does not call Amelia for help with the wards or email her for help with the cluviel dor.

Change

Sometimes our lives change in ways that we never could have imagined. We all know that. In fact, whether we hope for it or dread it, we all know that change is coming. We may not want to admit it to ourselves, but it is. Some changes turn out to be a welcome breath of fresh air that move us away from pain or grief while others take us straight to our own personal hell. I've been down both roads many times.

However change affects us, most of us hope that we will be able to find some familiarity in the pictures we would see in our future. That's what gives us the courage to get out of bed in the morning, to face the uncertainty of life. Don't get me wrong, I know very well that life takes turns that we wouldn't normally expect or want, but we can expect that there will be some elements of continuity that accompany us into our future, right? When my parents died, I had Gran, Tara and Jason. When Gran died, I had Sam, Bill, my home and job. You get the idea. Even when my world was turned upside down, I knew that I would always be able to find a person, place or activity I could feel some connection with to help me find myself again. That's what I thought at least.

If I could have seen years or really even weeks into my future, I would have realized that I was under a gross misapprehension. I would have seen a woman and I would not have recognized my life or who I had become.

Circumstances forced me into making dramatic decisions and changes in my life and the direct results of my choices led me to new possibilities. I found that when all of those comforts were removed, the things that held me like gravity to my perception of who I was as a person, a new individual could be born…raw and scared, but with the ability to grow into a person free from the constraints of my prior identity. Sometimes that's what life offers or demands.

So much has changed as time has passed for me since I shucked the 'skin' that was my identity of who Sookie Stackhouse was. I traded one existence for another and now I don't like to look back at the old me, I pity her too much.

I have never regretted making the changes I did, but I do regret the damage I did to others as I was getting here. Hell, who doesn't have regrets to one degree or another. But if I hadn't taken the steps I did, I shudder to think of what would have happened to me…who would I be now? Would I even 'be' at all?

In breaking my own patterns, in changing the trajectory of my life, it was unavoidable that those whose lives were entwined with mine would inevitably be affected, some more than others. I always knew this in theory, but I understand it more fully now. When the pathway of my life was significantly altered, those lives that were connected to mine, swung in varying degrees of severity to be pointed toward new paths. I had always tried to avoid impacting others with my decisions. I hardly felt that I had the ability to control my own life, much less the right to impact others in such a significant way. I was raised not to inconvenience anyone, but this time was different.

I made a change that was necessary, had been necessary for a very long time, I just didn't realize it until I hit that proverbial cliff. So I made the leap and ripped away the string that tied me to everything and everyone I knew and loved, not yet understanding fully how my choices would change the whole playing field.

What lightened my load on my journey was that I was able to take my weak, beaten life string and slowly wind it around a few select others to bring mutual joy, peace and knowledge to my life…to our lives. For once, I made a choice…because it was right…for me…in more ways than I could ever have imagined.

A/N: Thanks to Melissa for giving me the courage to share this story.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: First of all…Wow. I can't believe that anyone read my post already. I am so amazed and honored. This is my first attempt at writing and I can't wait to share it with you. Thanks for your encouragement! I'll be able to post the first few relatively quickly since they are complete and just need a final read through.

This first part of Day One reviews some pertinent details that will crop back up later in the story, so hang in there, we need to know where Sookie is standing before we can walk with her on her journey.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or stories from The Southern Vampire series. I can only hope that Ms. Harris doesn't mind me taking them for a stroll.

Day One-Tuesday

I sighed as I replaced the cluviel dor in my make-up drawer, sprinkled powder on it and got ready to meet up with Remy. Something was wrong with Hunter. I didn't have any idea what was going on, but Remy had been agitated when he called me yesterday and had asked me to meet with him this morning while Hunter was at a friend's house. Remy, who was usually very calm and cool, even in the face of Hunter's unique abilities, was very upset and had me worried. I tried to figure out what was going on, but all I could get out of him was that something had happened and that he needed to talk with me immediately.

Even though I was concerned, I was pleased that Remy was reaching out to me for advice. Not that I think I can solve Hunter's problems, I can't even begin to solve my own, but I could only imagine how different things might have been if my parents had someone that they could have turned to for advice while I was growing up. Would my life have turned out differently? Who knows, but hopefully I could help Remy offer Hunter a better future than the life I had lived so far.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not being ungrateful or whining. I know I have it better than many other people, I guess I'm just a little sad these days. I still haven't been able to shake off feeling detached ever since Neave and Lochlan got hold of me last year, and then there was the mess with Eric's maker and the loss of Claudine and effectively losing my great-grandfather too when he closed the portal to the fae world. Add in Sandra Pelt, Sam struggling to keep Merlotte's open and Eric being so withdrawn and fighting with Pam and I guess I just don't have much joy in my life right now. I hoped that working with Remy would give me a new purpose, something to focus on other than myself and my worries.

I had lost track of time re-reading Gran's letter and enjoying the comfort the cluviel dor seemed to give to me (probably a bit too much), so I was running a little late. As I left, I had to force myself to walk away from the cluviel dor. I had this strange sensation of being pulled toward it, like it was a minor source of gravity, or that inside that locket was the answer to all my desires, the cure for all my ills. I started back towards it, before stopping myself with a shake of my head. That thing could be dangerous if I let it pull me in, metaphorically speaking…I hoped. (You never know with magical devices). I forced myself to turn my back on it and I walked from the room, telling myself that I had things to do, people to help.

Luckily, the drive to see Remy would only take me about 45 minutes, we were meeting at a park halfway between Bon Temps and Red Ditch. I had looked it up on my map and so had a clear idea of where I was going. Eric kept pushing a GPS on me, but I did fine with a map, thank you. Besides, I had a slight suspicion that he wanted to use the GPS to see where I went during the day or to keep watch over me, and I definitely didn't like the thought of that at all.

During the drive, I continued to think about Gran's letter. I certainly understood her embarrassment at having cheated on her husband, but I was sure that she didn't regret being with Fintan, not only because he gave her children as she had said, but also because he brought a piece of the supernatural world into her life. Gran always had unusually broadminded views about people and situations that allowed her to experience more than the average human. I doubted that Fintan would have been drawn to her if she had been closed-minded or intolerant of people's differences.

Maybe her time with Fintan helped prepare her for raising a telepathic granddaughter. Gran had encouraged me to always have an open mind and to be comfortable with different people and later, with the supernatural world. At the time it was only vampires who were 'out' so she supported my foray into their world. I had thought it was because I was different and relatively incompatible with humans due to my telepathy, but now I realized that she also wanted me to experience a bit of the magic supernatural people had to offer.

I just wish that she had been willing to discuss everything with me before she died. There was so much I wanted to learn about her experiences with Fintan. I had so few people that I could share the supernatural world with and it was sad to have lost her right around the time that I met Bill. I bet she would have begun to open up to me, if she had lived. I sighed and pushed back my grief. Those regrets were water under the bridge like so much else in my life.

Thinking about Fintan had me worrying again about what Claude and Dermot were up to over at Hooligans. It worried me that there were so many fae gathering together. Sam and Eric's suspicions about their intent worried me further. What were they really up to? It seemed improbable that with all the full-blooded fae they had gathered together, that they would find my miniscule amount of fae heritage a draw at all. But for some reason, they did. Although, I thought that it was probably the draw of the cluviel dor rather than me that had their attention. It certainly had mine and I am sure they were more sensitive to its power than I was. Claude had even said that there was "something about this house" referring to why he and Dermot were staying with me. I was irritated with their incomplete explanations, I was sure that they were only telling me half-truths. In fact, half-truths seem to be all I got from anyone these days.

My frustration with half-truths had me ruminating about Eric and Pam again and I immediately felt myself getting agitated. What was going on with them and what was this 'thing' that was so horrible that Eric was keeping from me? He said that he kept information from me only if it would make me worry or if the information was dangerous for me to have. What kind of worry or danger was I facing now?

I felt myself droop as I contemplated the state of my life. Most days, it seemed as though there was danger at every footfall and from every direction…can you say Sandra Pelt, Fellowship of the Sun or Victor Madden, my own personal terminators hell bent on causing my death? But really, would one more threat be so shocking to me that Eric felt he had to keep it a secret? Does he think that I'm that fragile? Wouldn't I be better off knowing what was going on so I could try to protect myself? I think so and it was clear that Pam also thought I should know.

Generally, if I really were in danger, Eric would have sent Bubba to watch over me, (thanks but no thanks this time Eric, I'm better off on my own...no offense intended Bubba). Eric certainly hadn't been hanging around me himself to keep me safe from this nebulous threat. So how much danger could I really be in from the secret that Eric was keeping? Maybe it wasn't even a threat to me, maybe it was just something he wanted to keep private, he doesn't have to share everything with me.

I'd like to think that I wasn't involved, but I'd bet my favorite bikini that this was a big deal and something that I should know.

Whatever the cause, his general mood had been dismal to say the least; I had never seen him so despondent, it wasn't his nature. I knew he had to be infuriated by not being able to allow Pam to change Miriam, but there was much more bothering him than that and his raving hatred for Victor (which I shared, I'm not embarrassed to say).

He would tell me in time, I assumed, _if_ he could lower himself to "sharing his daily concerns with a human," I thought snidely. That comment of his had really ruffled my feathers. He had always treated me as part of the supernatural world, and suddenly he was downgrading my status to human, like I was just another fang-banger, it hurt. If that was all I was to him, another human, then maybe…no I didn't want to go down that road. We were both just in impossible positions with Victor breathing down our necks. I could be patient and wait until Eric was ready to talk. I had more than enough drama on my plate already. I shouldn't want his too.

As I finished lecturing myself on patience, the little red cell phone Eric had purchased for me rang in my purse, startling me. I could count on one hand the number of times I had received a call on this phone from anyone but Eric. I was on a quiet patch of straight country road, so I figured that it would be possible to talk and drive at the same time. I pulled to a stop as I dug the phone out of my purse, opened it, and pressed the little speaker button before resuming driving.

"Hello?" I said.

"Is this Sookie?" a male voice asked.

"Yes it is, who is this?" I asked politely.

"Immanuel, the hair stylist," I thought his voice had sounded familiar. I was perplexed as to why he would be calling me.

"Oh, Hi Immanuel, what can I do for you?" I asked.

He took a few seconds and seemed to be steeling himself to say something. I heard him speak quietly to someone before taking a deep breath. "Actually, I have something to tell you. The thing is, I would be in a lot of trouble if anyone knew I was calling you, but Miriam and I think you should know," he said, appearing to be convincing himself.

Oh boy, I was positive that I was going to learn what Pam and Eric had been fighting about the other night. I wasn't sure I really wanted to open this can of worms.

"Oh, OK," was all I could muster. I waited nervously for him to continue.

"You know, Pam talks to Miriam a lot and Miriam and I are really close. When Miriam heard that I had been to your house the other night, she told me that Pam is crazy worried about you."

"Uh-oh, why?" I questioned.

"Well, now keep in mind that this information is third-hand, and that you can't ever tell Eric who you heard it from because he would probably rip me in half, and don't you kill the messenger either. I'm only telling you this because I like Pam and she's worried about you, plus I liked your attitude when handling Eric and Pam the other night." He took another breath, "So, here goes…apparently within the next few days," his words now began to rush together so I had to listen hard to catch what he was saying, "Eric is going to be marrying some vampire from Oklahoma…."

He continued talking, but all I could hear was a buzzing sound. I slammed on the brakes as I pulled off to the side of the road, pressed the speaker button on the phone and placed it to my ear.

"Wait," I interrupted. "Give me a minute." I needed to wrap my mind around this thought. Eric was going to marry a vampire from Oklahoma? It must be the Queen of Oklahoma. That could be the only possible reason he would want to marry, to upgrade his status. What the hell? _He_ was the one who was always telling me that we were married in the eyes of the vampires, how could he marry her when he was already married to me? He was leaving me? That's what he didn't want to tell me?

Oh shit...Pam was worried about me. I was sure she wasn't worried about my broken heart…this was just going to get worse. Images of reasons why she might be worried about me flashed before me, each one worse than the last.

I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath, "OK, I'm sorry, please…continue," I urged him, my voice not as strong as I wanted.

"Well," he continued, sounding more sympathetic, "Pam says that when Eric marries this vampire, he will have to divorce you, or whatever vampires do when they end a marriage and she's really worried about what will happen to you once he's gone. She doesn't think that you will be safe without his protection."

I couldn't talk, and even if I could, I wouldn't know what to say.

"Um," Immanuel continued, "Miriam and I just thought you should know, plus Miriam is sure that Pam wants you to find out."

"Thanks Immanuel," I whispered, "and thank Miriam for me." I hung up the phone and stared at it.

My shock was fading and anger was setting in instead. How could this be possible? Eric? Angry tears burned in my eyes and my chest hurt. That highhanded jerk. He was going to leave me without even telling me or giving me any warning. How could this be happening to me again? I threw myself back in the car seat, slamming my head on the headrest and gritting my teeth. I was so sick of this shit. I was so sick of having people manipulate my life all the time. One minute that jerk is asking me to move in and calling me his 'wife', and the next minute he's walking out the door to marry another woman.

I rubbed the heels of my hands into my eyes and bright lights popped around in the dark. Why was I always the last person to hear about events that would affect my life and how in the hell could he possibly think that this was something I should not be told about? Pam obviously thought I should know, she had tried a few times, but he was so bent on controlling my life that he was willing to beat up his closest friend to keep me in the dark. Asshole. Who the fuck was he really? How could I have fallen in love with someone who would do this to me?

I sat and fumed for a few more minutes before my anger faded and fear began to grow. Immanuel said Pam was worried about what would happen to me when he left. I felt an ice-cold finger run up my spine. Eric said he had married me to add to my protection. We both were sure that I would have been taken against my will by another vampire if I were not tied to him in this way. I was positive that this was what was worrying Pam. I bet vamps would be sweeping into town to make a grab at me within a few hours of Eric's departure, and clearly he didn't care.

My heart was pounding against my ribs so hard that it felt as though it were outside my ribs. I pressed my hand to my chest to try and steady myself. Didn't Eric love me at all? _Me._ Not just what I was, how I tasted or what I could do for him. Me. The answer was clear in his actions. No. He couldn't possibly love me. If he truly loved me, he would have told me as soon as he decided to leave me, so I could have the best chance at protecting myself…but how?

I sat frozen at the wheel of my car for a long time before a truck passed me and I surfaced from my reverie. I looked at the clock. Damn, I would be late for Remy. I thought about calling him to cancel, but he had sounded so upset when he called. I had to go help him anyway I could, especially if I were going to be leaving soon, be it on my own volition or not. I sent him a text telling him I was on my way and pulled back onto the road. My thoughts were a jumble of angry accusations directed at Eric and terror of the unknown threats to my independence and safety.

I couldn't wait until sunset when I could call Pam and pump her for more information now that I knew what she had been trying to tell me all this time. She would have to tell me what she knew. I would not be calling Eric, I didn't want to talk or see him again. It was Bill all over again. I was so ashamed that I had fallen for the lie a second time.

I nearly threw the phone he gave me out the window in my anger, but decided that would be foolish and wasteful. Instead I said with the strong voice of a woman scorned, "Eric Northman, your invitation is rescinded!" I didn't know if it would work so far from my home, but it sure made me feel better, I thought, as I wiped a tear from my cheek.

Maybe not being able to read my lover's mind wasn't as good a thing as I thought, at least I would know when he was planning on stabbing me in the back if I could hear him.

Stupid vampires. Gran's old adage haunted me…they had fooled me twice…stupid me.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or stories from The Southern Vampire series. I can only hope that Ms. Harris doesn't mind me taking them for a stroll.

Chapter 3

When I pulled into the lot adjacent to the park, I found Remy sitting on a bench in an isolated corner of the park. He had two disposable coffee cups with him and handed one to me as I approached. I thanked him and sat down next to him looking out at the two mother and child pairs playing on the climbing structure. They were regular humans, out for a morning play session. I envied their uncomplicated lives. It must be so relaxing to be normal. I was just so tired, I felt numb and hollow. Normal was something I would never know.

Remy seemed to be appreciating the silence, so I tilted my face to the sky attempting to calm and center myself and tried to enjoy the feeling of the early summer morning sun on my face. I took a deep breath, loving the feeling of the sun-warmed air passing through my nose into my lungs. As I felt my tension abating, I was hit by Remy's anxiety rolling out of him like a tidal wave. I pitied him because I knew that whatever worried Remy about Hunter now was likely to be only the beginning of his troubles. With a heavy sadness, I admitted in my depressed state that this mockery for a life that I led was probably what was in store for Hunter, poor baby. Maybe he would be stronger than I was, make smarter choices, find a way to stay away from the supernatural community. He had a better chance than I had since he had a human father rather than a grandmother who supported involvement with vampires. Not that I blame Gran for anything, but I had certainly changed my tune about how much I appreciated her interest in the supernatural world since learning that I was about to become chum thrown into the water for the strongest vampire to claim. Hunter would have a better chance of surviving if he were surrounded by humans and he would certainly be better if I got out of his life. Boy, I was really having a pity party…poor crazy Sookie…she doesn't belong anywhere and she especially does not belong to herself. Many would say that I got what I deserved, hanging around with Vampires, maybe they were right.

After a few minutes, Remy turned to look at me. It was clear that whatever had happened, he was not handling it well. His face was pale and his jaw was tight. He had obviously not slept well and his hair looked as though he had been running his hands through it all night. He was an emotional wreck with fear, sadness, regret, hope and shame rolling into a huge emotive ball that I had a hard time blocking out.

"What's going on Remy?" I asked to break the ice. I noticed that my voice was a bit harsher than I intended and gave him a small smile in apology.

He looked at me briefly before turning to look back at his feet and said quietly, "If I think about something that happened, will you be able to 'hear' it, 'see' it? I don't know how to talk about it."

Now I was getting really concerned, Remy had handled all kinds of things with Hunter so far and he had sounded fine on the phone the other day when he asked me about going to Hunter's school. "Yes," I told him gently, more worried now and able to push aside my own distress. "I'll be able to see what you think about," grateful now that Remy was a good broadcaster of images.

He nodded and I focused on his thoughts, a clear story began immediately; he continued to look at his feet as he concentrated on the details of his memory…

He and Hunter had been at the mall two evenings ago, looking for some new clothes for summer since Hunter had grown out of all his old summer clothes. Remy and Hunter were walking together side by side; both looking harried and stressed. I could see from the look in Hunter's eyes, the difficulty he was having with trying to handle the thoughts from all the people in the mall. I empathized with his struggle and it was clear that Remy was uncomfortably aware as well. Malls were one of my least favorite places and I had avoided them religiously as a child.

I watched as Hunter came to an abrupt halt, turned around and began quickly following a short, brown-haired woman. The woman quickly sensed Hunter's pursuit and turned to look at him. Hunter approached the woman until he was close enough that he was able to reach out and touch her hand. Hunter's eyes were wide with curious amazement and he said, "You're different. I can't hear you and you're shiny."

The woman had leaned in toward Hunter, with a curious and eager expression on her pretty face. Remy, who had caught up to Hunter, yelped as he saw her fangs run out. "That's because I'm a vampire. What are you?" she questioned.

Hunter was completely at ease as he giggled and said, "Oh, yeah, my aunt Sookie taught me about you. I'm a boy."

The woman's eyebrows shot up when he mentioned my name, then she shook her head and said seriously, "No. You are most certainly not 'just a boy'," and I could see her fight to resist licking her lips as she pulled Hunter closer as she smelled him deeply.

Remy was shaking with fear and distress as he carefully intervened by apologizing and pulling a reluctant Hunter away from the vampire, who was showing clear signs of nearing blood lust, she must have been young to have had such a strong reaction.

As they rushed back to their car, Remy had turned back to see that the vampire was still staring at Hunter with a hungry and curious expression. Her interest worried me, but it was what I saw as Remy and Hunter passed out of the mall that terrified me to my very core.

Remy ran his hands through his hair as he looked up at me with fear in his eyes. His mind was running with a litany of half-formed questions and concerns, all of which were valid and needed answers. I sat back on the bench and groaned, covering my face with my hands. Holy Mary Mother of God, would it never stop? Could Hunter or I ever actually live a decent life or were we truly lost to an existence of living in between humans and the supernatural communities? How had this happened so early? I couldn't believe it, Hunter had been exposed already, and he was in serious danger, on a couple of fronts.

Remy was waiting for me to say something. Really, I should have had the courage to explain these things to Remy earlier. I had just hoped that Hunter would avoid vampires and other supes until he was older. I had also been aware that Remy was barely hanging on with all of Hunter's challenges as it was and I hadn't wanted to add to his stress. Plus, I didn't know if Hunter would 'sense' vampire minds the same way I did or if he would carry enough of the fae scent to draw attention. Clearly I had been dangerously wrong on all fronts.

"Remy, I'm so sorry," I said into my hands, "I should have prepared you for this, it's my fault that you were taken by surprise." I looked at him to find him staring at me in confusion. I sighed deeply and continued.

"I understand Hunter's reaction to vampires, it was the same for me when I first met one."

Remy gaped at me, "You know vampires?"

I nodded my head, if only he knew how well I knew vampires…but thankfully, that was information he did not need to have today. He also didn't need this information to be tinted by my recent vampire related drama, so I tried to give him input unbiased by my present mood.

"Vampires offer Hunter and I relief from all the noisy minds we hear all day. We can't hear their thoughts, so they are the only silence we get in this world when we're around others. To be honest with you, until my ability to block out other people's minds improved, I preferred spending time with vampires to being with humans. It was so relaxing and such a relief to have the silence." I tried to figure out how to explain it to him. "It's like being in a room filled with excited women, like at a baby shower, with them talking at once, all about different topics. You know how overwhelming that is. That's the way it always is for us all the time, and it is exhausting to try and ignore the thoughts, especially at Hunter's age. Being with a vampire is like opening a door and walking out of that room to an empty night filled with blessed silence. It is profound bliss and relief."

Remy grunted, he related to my example thoroughly, he was a man who greatly disliked socializing with groups of people. "Well that explains Hunter's reaction to the vampire, now what about her reaction to Hunter? She was surrounded by humans, why did she single Hunter out and how did she know that he was different? What did she mean when she said '_What_ are you'? Could she tell Hunter could read minds?"

I had to come clean and tell Remy everything. He needed to know how to protect his son, and to do so he needed information. I was so sad that my troubles were about to become Hunter's, but as I had just learned, it was best to be prepared. Knowledge could help them be safe. I sighed again, "Remy this may become a problem, a big one for you and Hunter. Vampires are better at identifying 'different' people than humans are, they are more in tune with supernatural abilities and are more willing to accept the unusual. I don't believe that she was able to identify Hunter as a telepath on sight, but Hunter did say that he couldn't 'hear' her, and that could lead her to guess about his abilities. Plus he said my name and I and my abilities are not exactly a secret anymore, so it may be easy for her to connect the dots. However, what concerns me most right now is how interested she was in Hunter's scent." Remy nodded his head looking sick.

Here came the hard part, I prayed that he would handle this well. "Remy, I'm going to get a little weird on you now, and tell you more about our side of the family than you probably want to know, but this is information that you need to have in order to take care of and protect Hunter."

I probed around us to make sure no ears were listening before saying, "You are familiar with vampires and Weres since they have 'come out' to the public, right?" Remy nodded looking like he didn't want to hear any more, but I continued. "Well, there are more supernatural beings out there and it just so happens that my great grandfather, Hunter's great, great grandfather was a full blooded fairy."

Remy stood up as if the bench had suddenly burned him and started pacing. "Fairy! What the fuck is a…a fairy? You're kidding me, this is a joke, right?" he begged me. I looked at him with sympathy; I knew how hard this was to understand. It had taken me a while to accept it even with Niall sitting right in front of me.

I shook my head sadly, "No, Remy, I'm telling you the truth. The streak of fairy that we have in our blood makes us very tempting to vampires. Our blood smells…sweeter to them. That's why the vampire was more drawn to Hunter than anyone else in the mall. It's a very rare bloodline."

"Oh, great." Remy said, kicking a small rocking duck, causing it to sway back and forth unsteadily. "On top of everything else I have to deal with, Hunter is going to be like catnip to vampires. I can't fucking handle this!"

He crashed back down on the bench, further from me than before, and looked at me like I was just a little bit more disgusting to him than I was two minutes ago. I was sad to see it, but I was used to having humans look at me that way, however I was even more sad and a quite a bit angry that he would be looking at Hunter in the same way.

"What else? Give it all to me," he said roughly, holding his hands out in defeat. So I did. I'm sorry to say that I didn't try quite as hard as I could have to protect Remy's fragile sensibilities, but his attitude pissed me off. "Hunter will be desired by all supernatural creatures and some humans for his telepathy, doubly by vampires for his sweet blood, and also by the fairies because he is descended from the fairy royal line and can be used as a pawn to try and force change during fairy wars."

Remy stared at me as though I had suddenly started to look like Belinos the Elf. "Oh my God...you're serious." I nodded and showed him the visible scars on my legs and back of my arm with sadness in my eyes. He recoiled, "I thought you were in a car accident?" I shook my head, "Someone did this to you? One of these fairies? Why the hell didn't you tell me?" He demanded.

He was angry and disgusted and I found myself getting more upset and defensive, but I tried to keep my calm, knowing how hard this was for him. "I should have told you Remy, I have no excuse but that I wanted to keep you both as far away from that part of my life as possible. As for the car accident story, I had to offer some reasonable explanation. I couldn't just tell everyone that I had been abducted and tortured by a couple of sadistic and psychotic fairies who wanted to use me as a pawn to hurt my great grandfather who just happens to be the prince of the fairies. I would have been locked up in a mental institution."

Remy sat with his head bowed and shoulders slumped. He looked completely defeated, so I continued. "Niall, my great grandfather closed the portal between the fae and our world to keep his opponents from causing more damage, but some have been left behind. Some are good, I think," remembering Claudine and wondering if there were more fairies 'on their way up' as she had been. Claude and Dermot certainly didn't qualify. "It's strange, but their population in the area is growing for some reason. All of the ones who were left behind seem to be congregating here. In fact, when you were at the mall with Hunter, you passed two fairies right before you went outside."

I didn't want to worry him too much by telling him that the female had pointed Hunter out to the male with a slight nod of her head and that the male had studied him momentarily before smiling at her and then disappearing. As he smiled, the tips of pointed teeth flashed momentarily behind his lips reminding me horribly of Neave.

Remy's head snapped up and he stared at me with wide eyes, "They may have been protecting him," I said to calm him, but I didn't think that was likely, "but I was hoping that they didn't know about him at all. It could be a very bad thing that Hunter is on their radar." I was much more concerned with fairies knowing about Hunter than I was about the vampire. How could I tell if they were sky or water fairies? Did it really matter? They were all bad news. I should have been more careful about his identity around Claude. I had been foolish in the extreme to let Claude or Eric see him at all.

Remy was in shock from the information I had shared with him. I tried to think if I could have delivered it in a better way, but the details needed to be given. He sat in thought for a while and I stayed out of his mind, giving both of us privacy.

Finally he looked back at me with a determined expression and said, "Take him. Take him away from here. Run and hide."

"Wh-what?" I sputtered, but he cut in, "You are the only one who can help him. You understand him and can protect him from vampires and from these fairies. I can't do it…I can't do any of it anymore. He will end up abducted, dead or completely miserable if he stays with me. He's happier when he's with you anyway. I can't help him the way you can."

I stared at him incredulously. "Remy, you're overreacting, there's no reason to run right now. We'll take precautions with him." Although what we could do to protect him was completely eluding me right now. How many times had I been told by someone I trusted that I would be kept safe, and still end up being hurt anyway?

I felt my anxiety increase as I thought of how powerless I truly was to protect Hunter. Vampires, Weres, Humans, fairies and witches had been completely unable to protect me and I was a capable adult. How could I protect Hunter? I had to find a way, but this...this could not possibly be the solution, Remy was just overwhelmed.

I know that I had been thinking about running just an hour ago when I heard that I was at risk, but really I expected to hear some simple solution when I spoke with Pam tonight. I couldn't leave my friends, my life and take Hunter away…that was impossible…wasn't it?

"Sookie, please help me keep Hunter safe. I can't do it. You know I can't. You know that before long, one of these…beings will figure out what he is and take him away and hurt him. Please, Sookie, help him."

I shook my head. Panic truly setting in now. What was the answer, what was the right path? I wished that I could talk with Eric about this, but I knew that I would never be able to trust him again, he had omitted too many essential details about my own well-being to be trusted with something so precious as Hunter's safety. My God, he's just a baby, he should not be facing this yet, especially not without his father.

"No Remy, he's your son, he needs you." I argued.

"He is my son, and I don't understand him. To be honest with you Sookie, I am scared of all of this and what it means for both of us. I don't have the strength or the desire to understand your place in the world." He pulled his hair again and his voice cracked, "I just can't do it anymore. You are his only way to have a safe life."

Remy was having some of the same feelings of fear and uncertainty that my parents had dealt with during my horrible childhood. They were scared of me and I still felt my stomach tighten at the thought of how they made me feel as a child and Remy's emotions were much more intense that anything I had felt from my parents, probably because my parents had been in the dark about the greater problems associated with our bloodline. How would Hunter ever be able to tolerate these thoughts and feelings from his father without going insane and hating himself and his life? The thought made me sick.

Would Hunter be better living with someone who understood him fully? Yes, but I couldn't take him from his father. How could I possibly raise a child when my life was such a clusterfuck of terror anyway?

I realized that I had been shaking my head when Remy said, "Yes, Sookie. He'll be better with you. I'll cover all his costs. I'll make you his legal guardian. You two can disappear together and both be safe. You can help him learn how to take care of himself. I can't do it, I'm just making things worse for him."

I closed my eyes and listened to Remy thoughts. Although he truly was worried about Hunter's safety, he had been thinking about giving Hunter to me since their run-in with the vampire. He had reached his tolerance limit for the unusual and supernatural and wanted to get Hunter out of his life so he could go on pretending that these types of things didn't exist. He had entered a state of distress where he could function solely for his own self-preservation, and he only saw one way out.

Hearing about the fae just made it all that much worse for him and reinforced his determination to give Hunter to me, like he was a misbehaving pet or something. It would be impossible to argue with Remy now, he was in fight or flight mode and couldn't think anymore. What a mess.

Remy put his hand on my forearm, "I wouldn't give him to just anyone Sookie, you are the best guardian for him. He needs you."

I ripped my arm away and stood up to glare at him. The physical contact had intensified all his emotions of disgust and fear and I was furious that Hunter would see that every time he touched the man who should love him more than anyone else in the world. They had been so close, so comfortable together, but somehow the influx of the supernatural world into their lives had damaged something essential within Remy.

"Don't touch me, and don't touch Hunter while you are thinking about this, you will destroy him." I wrapped my arms around my trunk to try and rid myself of his influence, there was no way Hunter had missed his father's thoughts about this last night. "He must already be aware of your thoughts, what has he said to you about this?"

Remy frowned, "He's upset and hurt that I'm scared. He thinks I'm scared of him rather than for him," I scoffed, knowing that Hunter would be completely right, Remy was scared of his son, he just couldn't admit it to himself.

I was filled with righteous indignation for Hunter that his own father would turn his back on him this way, so I fisted my hands to keep myself from slapping him and shook my head, "Remy, I need to get away and think about this for a bit. I'll be in touch with you."

I started to walk away but turned back to him. "I'm serious Remy, be very careful what you think about when you're around him, you could really damage him and I know you don't want to do that. You are a better father than that at least." I turned and stormed off, slightly ashamed that I had snapped at him, but relieved that I had refrained from completely dumping all my rage upon him.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or stories from The Southern Vampire series. I can only hope that Ms. Harris doesn't mind me taking them for a stroll.

Chapter 4 Leap of Faith

I slammed my car door and drove away, still fuming and shaken. Intellectually, I knew that Remy was in a really tough position. I couldn't imagine many supes who could easily handle all the information I had given him, and Remy had lived a simple, normal, human life that in no way prepared him for what his wife's blood gave to his son. Hadn't I even debated the ethics of bringing a child into the world with my genetic nightmares? But still…I was furious that he would even contemplate leaving his son, no matter what the reason.

I just didn't know what to do, about any of this, I needed help, but who could I ask for advice? I hadn't told anyone about Hunter's abilities, so there was no one I could really turn to for help. In my angry mood, I laughed cynically; Eric was right, I really was a pathetic human. No one could help us, if they would even try.

If I told Eric about Hunter's abilities, there was nothing he could do to keep Hunter safe, I had learned that the hard way. Of course, I thought bitterly, Eric probably wouldn't make the effort to help me, now that he had bigger and better plans, but whether he would help me or not didn't matter anyway.

I used to think that Eric was all powerful and able to protect me, but the more I learned about vampire politics and power structure, the more I understood that Eric was just a middle manager who had to do what his superiors told him to do or face the violent repercussions. I wouldn't put him or us in that position, not with vampires and fae aware of Hunter and I. No, there was no true form of protection from such forces. I shuddered at the memory of being magically knocked unconscious as Neave and Lochlan abducted me under the nose of a witch and a vampire.

If they wanted you, they got you. _If_ they could find you. Fintan had shown that it was possible to hide when he kept my family hidden for all those years. Maybe I could hide Hunter until he was old enough to make his own decisions. I would have to be the one to take him, Remy was useless at this point and no one would expect it of me, so I should be able to slip away without notice. I shook my head, I'm an idiot…I'd need a witness protection plan to get away without anyone finding me. I could contact the FBI agents, Sarah Weiss had been a believer and might be willing to help us, but I would have to 'out' myself formally to the FBI. Not something I was interested in doing…

At that moment, my cell phone rang for the second time today. I groaned, this could only be more bad news. I was in a careless mood, so I didn't slow as I looked at the number on the little screen. I didn't recognize it so I answered cautiously, already nervous and jumpy from my thoughts about fleeing.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Miss Stackhouse, Desmond Cataliades," a rich, deep voice came over the line.

I was relieved, and tried to offer the last bit of courtesy I had left in me, "Hello Mr. Cataliades, how are you and Diantha doing?" Even I could tell my voice was forced and brittle.

"We are both out of the area, however, I have been meaning to contact you for a few days now."

"Mr. Cataliades, I wanted thank you for sending the Leeds to help me, they kept a really bad situation from getting much worse." I said sincerely, remembering how awful the other night could have been.

"My pleasure dear, I owe you for a number of debts. I was happy to intervene on your behalf."

A light bulb went off in my mind and my heart began to pound. Mr. Cataliades was a supernatural lawyer. He could probably make anything happen, _he_ might be able to help us. Oh my God, was I really thinking about this? I guess I was, but I was afraid to officially crack open the door of fleeing, knowing that there would be very angry, ugly and dangerous possibilities that lingered behind the door marked "Sookie's secret escape hatch." However, I knew intellectually, if not in my heart, that this was my best choice, I had to take the chance. I had followed my heart for too long and ended up with nothing but a broken heart, body and spirit, again and again.

I steeled myself, "Mr. Cataliades, I have a number of questions to ask you, do you have time to talk right now?"

"Yes dear," he said without reservation.

"Um, is there anyone around you who might be listening? What I have to say is private and I need to keep it between us." I was feeling very paranoid, and my experiences told me that I had good reason.

"I am alone and my phone is secure. I would know if your phone was compromised as well. This sounds serious Miss. Stackhouse."

"It is, to me." I said.

"Continue then, my dear."

I needed to get a few more concerns covered before I told him anything else.

"Mr. Cataliades, if I asked you for help and advice, would everything that we discussed be kept between us?"

"All the services I perform are kept completely confidential. I have many high profile clients throughout the supernatural world with, as you can imagine, very large secrets."

"There isn't anyone, vampire, fae or other who could force you to divulge information?" I asked.

It sounded as though he almost sniggered at this question, it was a strange sound to come from such a large man. "Miss Stackhouse, I realize you have only spent a small amount of time with demons, but be assured that vampires and fae could never make a demon tell them anything."

I was relieved and more than a little astonished that he was stronger than vampires and fae.

I took a deep breath, "OK. I want you to bill me directly for any time you take with me, I don't want it on the King's time." I needed to make sure there was no way for Felipe to trace us to one another.

"That won't be necessary, I am still indebted to you for saving my and Diantha's lives, for aiding my queen and for helping me to find out who killed Gladiola. I will be only too happy to provide you with any assistance you require…" He left the end of the sentence open as though he were encouraging me to speak my mind.

I took another deep breath, not sure how to do this, so I just jumped in.

"Do you have any experience in helping people change their identity and go into hiding?" I said, my words rushing together.

"Ah, my dear," he said sounding like a weary and concerned grandfather, "this is the reason I was calling you. I was disappointed that Mr. Northman has not been more forthcoming with you, but I see that he finally told you about his Maker's plans for him to marry Oklahoma." _WHAT?_ "You are astute to realize that his marriage will leave you at great risk of being claimed by any number of other vampires."

I was absolutely shocked and tears of anger and grief began to gather in my eyes. This was Eric's maker's plan, not his? A hundred questions flashed through my mind, but I didn't have time to think about it because Mr. Cataliades continued, "I have heard that a number of prominent, and for you Miss. Stackhouse, very undesirable vampires have already begun making steps to claim you as soon as Mr. Northman declares his intent to marry. This is why Mr. Northman's insistent requests to his king that he be released from his Maker's marriage contract have been and will continue to be denied. So, my Dear, I am sorry to tell you that you will soon be without Mr. Northman's considerable protection, and thus in great peril."

I gasped for breath. Eric had been trying to get out of the marriage. He didn't want to leave me. This knowledge hurt even more than hearing that he was marrying someone else. At least then I could fall back on anger and blame to cover the pain of my loss. This is why he didn't tell me, he was still hoping that he could get out of it, but according to Mr. Cataliades, Felipe would not allow it…because of me. Felipe wanted me, so he would make Eric honor his Maker's wishes.

I was dizzy with the information but I didn't want to admit my ignorance in the fear that it would make Mr. Cataliades reluctant to tell me more, so I said quietly, "Yes, that is part of my motivation to leave," it certainly was now.

This small piece of information explained a lot about what had been going on lately. Appius had come to Louisiana to discuss "unwelcome business" with Eric as well as to help Alexei. It was at this point that Eric began using the word "wife" with me more frequently and was more irritable with me when I made light of our marriage. I was beginning to understand what had been going on during the days of silence that followed Appius' arrival. Maybe Appius was unaware that Eric had married, but once he met me, I was sure that he wanted Eric to be free from his human. Or maybe the contract for Eric to marry the Queen of Oklahoma was already completed by that time. At least I figured it was a Queen, although given Appius' preference for men…who knew?

So because of Eric's maker, I, and by extension and other circumstances, Hunter was in serious danger, so whatever the cost, Hunter and I had to get out of here.

"Do you know how I can do this?" I asked, much more invested in my developing plan.

"Yes, but you don't have much time, so this must be done with haste. There is a deadline on the marriage contract and Mr. Northman has to commit by the end of the week or be held in breach of contract. This means that his protection of you will be ended and you will be, as they say, 'up for grabs' to the strongest vampire."

Shit, I thought and my mind began to scramble for ideas and came up empty.

Thankfully he continued, "I have helped many people disappear quickly and permanently over my years and I can help you to do the same, _if_ it is truly what you want." His voice was serious and firm, letting me know that there was no going back once I made this decision.

I swallowed my fear. There was no other option for me. The strongest and most brutal vampires out there were circling me like vultures over fresh meat. Even if I ran to someone I thought I could trust, like maybe Stan, Russell or even Bart, we would probably have to be bonded for others to leave me alone. I couldn't accept that. If I did that, I would just be giving away my freedom rather than having it stolen from me. On top of that, Hunter was at risk from vampires and fae.

Fate's timing was impeccable, we both had to run for our lives and our freedom. "Yes, I need to do this as soon as possible." As I said this, I felt a chill run though my body, starting at my head and running down through to my fingers and toes.

I had made my choice. I wasn't going to turn back now.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Perfidy

His voice switched from caution to all business, "Very well, listen carefully Miss. Stackhouse, this information is vital to your freedom and survival." He gave what to me was a dramatic pause, "Your break from Mr. Northman and your family and friends will have to be immediate and complete. There will be no possibility for you to inform or keep in contact with anyone. That is extremely important, especially for you. Your disappearance will anger humans, vampires, fae, Weres, witches, shifters, and probably the FBI. They will all use every formidable power at their disposal to find you. You, my dear, are very valuable for many reasons."

I gulped and allowed him to continue.

"The only way I have found for a person to go into hiding successfully is for the world to believe that person to be dead."

I groaned. "Oh no," I couldn't do that to my friends and family. I had hoped I could leave them with the knowledge that I was living happily somewhere away from all the danger and anxiety of my current life. How could I...my heart sank, and the thought of their grief for me ate away at my already bleeding insides…but I understood the truth of his words. The supernatural world would not just give up on me if I disappeared. They would look for me with all their skills, witchcraft, fae magic, vampire glamour, Were senses and FBI intelligence. They would leave no stone unturned unless they all believed me to be dead.

"You will also have to break your bond to Mr. Northman, that greatly complicates things."

This just got worse and worse, I had momentarily forgotten about the bond. I reached out and felt the light sensation through the bond that was Eric while he was sleeping, the awareness often gave me comfort, but now it actually caused me pain. Now that I was faced with the loss of the bond and of Eric, every part of me wanted to hold it close and protect it, but I couldn't. I had to destroy it.

I pushed the pain away as I wondered if Amelia had found anything out about breaking the bond. I'd have to ask her. "I already have a witch friend looking into how to break the bond," I said, my voice strangled by unshed tears.

"You cannot discuss this with anyone who knows you. I will handle all the details so long as I have your full cognizant approval that the bond will be broken and a very plausible murder scene that will pass inspection by all interested parties will be set. In your case," his voice became a little softer, and I thought I detected a bit of regret, "the murder must be convincingly played out, thus causing the right emotional climate so that Mr. Northman believes it through the bond." That sounded really scary for me and terribly upsetting for Eric. How could I deliberately hurt him that way? I still loved him, even if he had put me in this danger by not being honest with me.

Mr. Cataliades continued to twist the knife of guilt in my chest, "He will feel the bond break, but he needs to be convinced that you were killed, not just that you broke the bond. If he does not believe the scene we set, he will seek you out and in so doing, lead others to you." I knew he was right, but I held my chest to contain the pain in my heart.

"Immediately after breaking the bond, which should occur right before sunrise, you must get on a plane and 'disappear'." I groaned silently, 'right before sunrise', so Eric could feel my fear, but not have any chance of helping me. He would be frantic and completely unable to aid me. What a bitch I turned out to be. Not only would I leave him, breaking our bond, but I would make him feel it and be unable to help. I deserved to truly die for this despicable act. Anything he had done or not done in regards to this situation was negligible compared to the crime I would perpetrate against him.

I was quiet for too long, "Miss. Stackhouse?" Mr. Cataliades questioned.

I shook myself back to the present, "Will you be the one helping me do this?" I whispered.

"No, I have associates I turn to when I have magical needs such as these, they will be able to complete the task without leaving a trace of themselves behind, including evidence in an ectoplasmic reconstruction that your Miss. Broadway is so fond of doing."

I replaced my fear of the unknown with thoughts of Hunter and the threats looming down on both of us and was bolstered with courage created from the desperate need to act. I closed my eyes, leaned my head back on the seat and took a deep breath, "Okay, let's do it."

I was agreeing to allow a stranger to act out my murder and break the bond I had to my lover, friend and husband. It was insane, but I could see no other road to take in the short time that I had left.

"I will contact them as we are finishing up the other details, they will have instructions for you."

"Alright," I said, "how do I go about changing my name and all that?" I asked him.

"That is the easy part and I will have your new documents delivered to you tomorrow. I'll create an identity from a small town somewhere else in Louisiana so your accent matches. Which name would you like to use?"

I couldn't think for a moment, but I knew that I wanted to take a tiny piece of Gran with me. "Would it be stupid for me to use my Gran's name as a middle name?"

"No that shouldn't matter," he responded.

"How about…Jeanne Adele…and whatever last name you think is appropriate." He grunted in acknowledgement. Jeanne was the name of Gran's youngest sister who had died at birth. I thought it would be nice to have them both with me and no one really knew about Jeanne so it shouldn't be dangerous.

Holy cow, I'd forgotten about Hunter, so I added hastily, "Um…and I'll also need some papers for a six year-old boy who I'll be claiming as my son."

Mr. Cataliades was quiet for small space of time, obviously thinking through the implications of what I had just said. I hoped he wouldn't connect too many dots.

"Are the parents willing for you to take him?" he asked.

"Yes, it was his father's idea" I said, hating to identify Hunter as the child of only a father since Mr. Cataliades knew Hadley's story intimately. Telling him that the boy was six was enough of a tip off, although I had hopes that Mr. Cataliades never knew that Hadley had a son.

"Do any of your acquaintances have even a basic awareness of this child's existence?"

"Um," I thought of Sam, Claude, Tara and Eric, "yes, a few do." I admitted.

I heard him sigh, "Then his father will have to go into hiding as well and I will stage a car accident that will apparently claim both of their lives. I will provide his father with a new identity with a different last name from yours and cut all of his ties to the child. I will then create a new identity for the child and fabricate a dead father for him. You and the child will have different last names to ensure that one of you can not be tracked if the other is found, but you will have all legal rights as his mother. I think that this will be the best scenario for everyone."

I couldn't believe how easily he thought up these plans, I guess living under the radar was part of being supernatural in this world. "Okay, that should work out fine," Remy would get what he wanted; he would just have to start over like us. I couldn't bring myself to worry about him too much.

"Will the father need a job once he relocates?"

"Yes, he's a carpenter."

"I will make sure he has contacts for false references for when he does apply in his new residence. Tell him to leave his car somewhere public and I will take care of staging the accident."

"Thank you," I said quietly.

"What name shall I assign to the child?" He asked. I didn't want to provide Hunter's name but I knew it would be too hard for him to accept a new name at his age. "Can I just give him an initial for a middle name, or does he need a full name?"

"An initial is fine."

"Then let's do Jonathan H. and whatever last name you think is best." This way he could go by Hunter if he wanted.

"That will work," he said, sounding a little curious.

"You can do that all today?" I asked him, still amazed at his comfort with all these topics we were covering.

"Yes dear, half of them are already done. The father's papers will not have his picture, but he will have everything he needs to have a license made up legitimately. The child does not need a photo on his papers." I heard him typing and then the line was silent for almost a minute.

"Mr. Cataliades?" I asked, wondering if our connection had been lost.

"I am here, I have just received some new information that affects you Miss. Stackhouse...I always knew there was something special about you."

What?

"It is appropriate now for us to discuss your finances," Mr. Cataliades continued.

"Um, I have some money that Claudine, my cousin left for me and some money that the Queen paid me for Rhodes…" I babbled, confused as to where this discussion was going.

"No," he interrupted, "you can not take money out of your accounts, that would be a clear indication that your disappearance was premeditated."

Oh shit, what would I do? I didn't have much I could sell easily and I sure didn't want to take money from Remy…

He continued, "It is fortuitous, my dear, that you called me before disappearing, as I have just been told that I can release some information to you, now that you are moving forth into the world alone."

"What do you mean?" I questioned. What was he talking about?

"At your birth, I was given control over a large sum of money to maintain on your behalf." I gasped, "I was instructed to wait to be notified before making contact with you regarding the money until you planned to permanently leave your hometown. I was to hold onto the money and never mention it if you did not make strides toward true independence."

"I'm sorry, but I'm confused. Who is this money from?" I questioned.

"As to that exactly, I am not aware, but I know that it is from one of your relatives."

"Niall?" I questioned apprehensively. I wanted to cut ties with the fae, taking money from Niall would not be smart or right.

"No, not that blood line, but as I said, I was not informed as to who left it for you. It is meant to support you as you seek your independence. I did not mention it until now, because this is the first true step that you have taken on your own."

"Oh my God, you know about another part of my family! What can you tell me?" I was bowled over by this revelation, I could learn more about myself.

"Unfortunately, I was not provided with any information besides what I am about to tell you." He waited until he could tell I was giving him my absolute attention.

"This is the genetic line from whence your telepathy came." I heard myself make an odd squeaking sound, and he paused again before continuing, "Until now, you have been living in a state of immaturity as far as your powers are concerned. In this bloodline, maturation occurs not at physical puberty, but when steps toward true independence are taken. I have been informed that you have just now triggered these genes by making the choice to be autonomous."

Whoa, I thought, I haven't reached maturity yet? That's crazy. Wait-I didn't want to change anymore, I was already strange enough...this couldn't be good. "What's going to happen to me?" I questioned, my voice shaking.

"Of that I do not know, I was only given the information I would need to complete the tasks required of me," he answered. "I can tell you that apparently your aging will slow since I have been tasked with modifying the birthdate on your identification every five years".

Oh shit, instead of stepping away from the supernatural world, I was joining it more fully. I would't be aging? What the hell was going on and why all the secrecy? Here I was facing the possibility of learning more about myself and all I find is another bloodline filled with ambiguity and veiled implications...great. This is just what I needed, another genetic mystery that would probably make me even more desirable to supes. "I'm a real mutt of supernatural breeding aren't I?" I grumbled. My life was so screwed up. Then it hit me, this would probably affect Hunter too when he left home, wherever that would be, thank goodness I was taking him with me, he was going to need more help than I thought.

I was also a little insulted. I mean…I had been living on my own for two years now. No one was taking care of me anymore...but as I thought it through a little more, I realized that in fact, this was the first step I had taken on my own. I was going to move away from home and leave everyone else behind and it terrified me.

Someone, some part of my…family…had been waiting for me to do this, and was facilitating me in taking these steps by providing me with money. Wow. Hey, I was not in any position to complain, "Okay, I'll take any help I can get." And then I got smart, past experiences making me cautious. "Wait, will I owe them anything for accepting this money?"

Mr. Cataliades hummed in appreciation, "A very astute question, but no, this is a gift, freely given," he said with a smile in his voice.

"Okay," I said, relieved, "can you set me up with credit cards and checks and all that so I can access the money when I get where I'm going?"

"Of course, that information will be provided in the package with your identification. Use only your new funds or cash to purchase anything that is out of the ordinary for you, and please make sure that you are home for the delivery tomorrow, you do not want this package sitting around for others to find."

I agreed, "Is that everything?"

"Unless you wish to update your will?" He asked. Oh my goodness, my will.

"Ugh, yes," I said unsteadily. "Do you need it now?"

"Yes, I'm ready" he said.

Well, I wasn't ready...for any of this, but it had to be done and now. "Um…please leave the house and the property to Jason Stackhouse." I hoped Jason would keep Gran's house, maybe rent it out or move into it himself. "Um…" and then I had an idea that made me smile. I continued, "Give half of my cash to Sam Merlott to help him with the bar. Give the rest split evenly between Jason and Tara and JB du Rone for college for their kids." This would help me feel connected to them after I was gone.

Eric, what could I give Eric, he didn't need anything from me… "Oh, state that I wish any services to be held at night and that Eric be given any rights that my true husband might have including the right to take any of my personal belongings from the house that he wants. Make sure to state in the will that I see him as my true husband." That would have to do, there was nothing else I could do for him.

Then, despite myself, I gave a short laugh, "Leave Pam my entire wardrobe, with the emphasis on my shoes and shorts and give Eric my grandmother's green, blue and yellow quilt and Buffy DVD collection and make sure they know that it's a joke." Hey, I had to have some relief from all the drama, right? "Oh, and give Pam my Benelli and tell her to get more lessons at the shooting range." I had given her a few quick lessons, but would feel awful if something happened because of my questionable instruction. "Ah…my car should be offered back to Tara de Rone and any belongings that no one wants can go to a charity for children who suffer from sexual abuse." That was the best I could do without time to think about it more, and time was something I didn't have.

"I'll have that backdated by one month and a copy sent in the packet tomorrow. That should finish things up for us." There was a long moment of silence.

"Mr. Cataliades?" I asked quietly.

"Yes Dear."

"Will I be able to keep in contact with you?" I was feeling very scared and alone. He was my life raft now.

"That would not be wise, and if we do this correctly, you will have no further need of my services."

I nodded because I was too choked up to talk until I swallowed a few times.

"How much time do you think I have?" I whispered.

"I have received communication regarding this situation. My associates will leave a car on the south side of Route 10, one mile past the beginning of the Maurepas Swamp, just north of New Orleans. You are to arrive 30 minutes prior to sunrise on the second night from now, that is Wednesday night. You are to park behind the car and run directly into the Swamp, following a magical trail they will leave. They will be waiting for you."

Oh gosh, that sounded ominous, my heart was pounding again. "So soon…" I lamented.

"Yes Dear, the timing is critical, events are occurring quickly around you and you will get swept away if you wait any longer."

He provided me with a list of things I needed to do today and recommended that I complete them before sunset. Then there was nothing left to say, I needed to let him go, but I was so scared to cut this connection I had to the one person who was able and willing to help me.

"Thank you so very much, I won't ever be able to express how much you have helped me," I said with sincerity.

"My pleasure Dear. You have my cell number, use it until you go underground if you have the need. I will be purging this call from our records. Remember also that you can only take items with you that you would normally have on your body or that no one else has ever seen, other items may be missed by authorities or your loved ones. Place the bag you wish to take with you on the passenger seat of your car. You will be leaving in the car they provide, yours will be left alongside the road with the rest of your belongings intact."

"Right." I said breathily, this was crazy. But I remembered my manners, "Thank you Mr. Cataliades, and please say 'Hi' to Diantha for me," I said in the attempt to reach out one last time to a friend.

"Yes Dear, good luck," and he hung up.

I sat in my car along the quiet road and sobbed. I cried for myself and for my loved ones. I cried for Hunter and for Remy. I cried because I was scared, angry, hurt, betrayed and for the simple sake of self-pity.

Finally, I sat up with my head throbbing from the crying jag. I blew my nose and decided to put on my big girl panties and face my life head on.

I called Merlotte's to tell them I was going to be out sick for today's shift, claiming a stomach flu. I was very grateful that Sam wasn't there, I didn't think I could hold myself together if I had to talk to him and he was sure to know something was wrong. I left my message with India, I knew that I sounded terrible and she told me to feel better and not worry about a thing. I wished with all my heart that I could follow her advice.

Next I called Amelia and asked if I could come stay with her, arriving in the early morning hours of Thursday. She tried to talk me out of driving to New Orleans after working the late shift on Wednesday, but I assured her that I really was on night hours from spending so much time with Eric and she stopped worrying. My heart was pounding as I spoke with her, knowing that it would be the last time I would hear her voice and hating that she would be on the frontline of events since I was pretending that I was going to visit her.

Once I finished the calls, I started the car and began driving to Monroe. I was thankful that I had a lot of cash on me from the money Brenda and Donald had paid me for my antiques. I went straight to Best Buy and paid cash for a disposable cell phone and spent way too much of my limited time having a really nice young man in a blue shirt teach me how to make calls and access the internet. Luckily, I had played around on Sam's smart phone at the bar a number of times and had a general idea of how to access this ridiculous piece of technology.

I then found another secluded area along the road, pulled over with my hands shaking and called Remy. He answered on the first ring, sounding as disturbed as when I had left him in the park.

I told him that I would be taking Hunter and informed him of our change of names and that I would need to meet with him and Hunter tomorrow in Monroe. We chose the McDonalds near the mall to meet. I needed to pass on his new identification and to have a talk with Hunter to alleviate some of his fears. I really hoped he was doing all right with all of this going on, he must be a mess.

Remy was incredibly relieved, not seeming to have any trouble with the idea of moving and changing his identity and asked when Hunter could leave with me. I decided that it would be safest for me to initially go alone. I didn't want to drag Hunter into more danger if this didn't work. If I was able to get away without being followed or found, I would have him join me in 2-3 weeks. I told Remy to plan to move into an out of state hotel tomorrow and to use only his new name and identification. Sam, Eric, Tara and Claude knew about Hunter and I realized that Victor probably knew as well thanks to Heidi's visit when Hunter was over. He was at too much risk. Remy understood and promised to keep Hunter safe.

I tried to impress, as Mr. Cataliades did for me, the importance of disappearing without making it appear premeditated. They should make it look like they were out for a normal drive before leaving their car at the mall. They could only take a few basic things with them and and then Remy would need to rent another car with his new identity to get wherever they would hide until it was safe for Hunter to join me. Remy agreed, he was willing to do anything to make this go smoothly.

I gave him my new cell number and told him to buy a disposable cell with cash and only to call me from that number from here on out.

I started the car again and headed toward Monroe. I was really nervous with some of the instructions Mr. Cataliades passed on to me, I was especially worried that both Eric and I would survive the breaking of the bond. I was fretting because I hadn't made it apparent that I wanted Eric unhurt through this process. What if Mr. Cataliades didn't make that clear to his 'associates?' What if they hurt him? The thought of Eric being hurt or killed when the bond was broken gave me such a visceral reaction that I was stabbed in the stomach with a terrible pain and I was barely able to pull over to the side of the road and wrench open the door before I threw up. My body was shaking and I felt as though I truly had the flu.

Well, I thought with the last bit of humor I could muster, as I rinsed out my mouth with water, at least I wouldn't really be lying about having a stomach bug.

I solved this one source of anxiety by texting Mr. Cataliades and clarifying my intentions regarding Eric's safety while at the same time, giving him my temporary cell number and the location and time that Remy's car would be abandoned.

I wished all my other concerns were so easy to solve.

A/N: Hi all! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed your comments from the last chapter. I love the indignation you have for Sookie, she needs us to stand up for her since she is just learning how to do that on her own. I also love the guesses you made as to what is coming next...you are making this even more fun for me! Thanks!

One more chapter until we see Eric...


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Lies

Finally, I took my first deep breath since answering Immanuel's call this morning. I knew I needed to calm myself down before Eric woke, plus I still felt shaky and I could smell my funk so I decided to take a much-needed hot bath and have a rare glass of wine. Wine was probably not the best idea, but if I ever needed a glass, it was today.

While the water was running, I called Claude made sure that he would be staying far away from the house for the next 24 hours by telling him that I would be continuing the cleaning out of old family things and apologizing that the house would be a mess. If anything could keep Claude away, it was the prospect of helping me with the house. I wasn't too sad to say 'goodbye' to him and through him to Dermot, there were just too many nebulous and direct threats from the fae and I was relieved to be getting away from them. I tried not to reflect on why he seemed to be uncharacteristically curious as to why I was calling him.

I had a moment of panic when I hung up the phone as I thought about Niall's reaction when he heard that I was dead. I was worried that he would blame Eric and hurt him or start another war. I contemplated steps I could take to protect Eric, but realized the only thing that could help was that it was to happen so close to sunrise. That would have to do.

I poured myself a glass of white wine and a large cup of apple juice, drank the juice down and placed the wine on the side of the tub. I took off my shirt and then removed the band-aid that covered a small red mark just over the vein in the crook of my elbow. Anyone who looked closely would know what it was from, but otherwise, it was very hard to notice. I brushed my teeth thoroughly, removed the rest of my sweaty clothes and slipped into my welcoming bubble bath.

I've always gained comfort from taking my baths. I find them perfect times for thinking. I settled back and reviewed my day. I could hardly stop shaking my head in amazement at how my life had changed in the last 9 hours. I was making plans to run for my freedom from terrible foes and here I sat in a cozy tub, but I had done most of the things I could do until I received the packet tomorrow from Mr. Cataliades. I was amazed by how things had come together. Not only was I going to be breaking the blood bond I had with the man I loved, but I took part in planning my own apparent murder, agreed to adopt my six year-old telepathic cousin and was running for my freedom and possibly my and Hunter's lives from the King of Nevada, Louisiana and Arkansas, among others. It had been a busy day, even for me.

I was under no delusion that I truly was running for my life. I was sure that in time, Felipe or whoever 'won' me, would want to change me in attempts to get me to do his or her dirty work because I would not help anyone if I were held against my will. Thinking about what my future held for me if I were unable to run made me even more grateful for all the help Mr. Cataliades had given me, he had certainly repaid me in full for any help I had given him in the past and I considered him a friend.

I allowed a flash of anger directed at Eric as I contemplated my future if I stayed here. Why had Eric not told me that I was in danger? He had known about his potential marriage since Appius first arrived. Why had he not told me before this crisis point that I was in danger? There had been plenty of time, was he ever going to tell me? I had to believe that he was going to let me know at some point, I had to, I just couldn't face the thought the he might not have been planning on ever coming clean, but we only had a few days before all the shit hit the fan, so what was he waiting for?

I made a concerted effort to let go of the anger and uncertainty. The only things I knew for sure were that I loved Eric and that he had always tried to protect me. The fact that his methods or the circumstances occasionally made his efforts less than effective needed to be ignored. I didn't have the time to point fingers or to hold a grudge. I loved him and I needed to make him comfortable in the bond so that he felt my love until it was broken. I would not cause him more pain than was necessary.

After coming to grips with my feelings about Eric, my mind tried to slip into grief over the looming loss of my friends and I started to creep down into a depression thinking of losing them forever. What a horrible person I was to make them grieve for me. I saw Sam's face in my mind and I had a sudden and very clear realization that my friends would rather have me take these steps than suffer at the hands of some horrible vampire, or stand by and watch Hunter be hurt. I took comfort knowing that they cared for me enough to want me to be free and well.

So instead of wallowing, I set myself to the more productive task of deciding where Hunter and I should go. We needed to be far away from any vampires or supes who might recognize me. I thought back to the lesson Eric had 'enlightened' me with the night that Appius had arrived. I had been irritated with him for the detailed analysis of the vampire power structure in America, but it was certainly turning out to be helpful now.

I knew that I absolutely needed to get out of the states including Louisiana that made up Amun, I had met too many of the vampires from there at Rhodes. Unfortunately there had been some traveling vamps from Moshup, the east coast states and from Zeus to the west as well. I didn't remember hearing about anyone from Narayana on the west coast, so that could be a possibility. North and South Dakota had a very small population of vampires, but I shivered in my warm bath thinking of the cold winters. Alaska was part of Canada and Hawaii…Hawaii was autonomous. I hadn't explored that further with Eric because Appius had arrived then, but Hawaii might be perfect. I would prefer to be there so much more than in North or South Dakota and being so far from Louisiana and Nevada would offer me some peace of mind.

I finished up my bath by shaving and giving myself a salt scrub and then I stepped out. I couldn't help but have a depressing inner monolog that cataloged my 'last events' for me. My last bath here, the last time I would touch Gran's shower curtain, use her brush or sit in her favorite chair. I couldn't stop the thoughts from coming as I dressed, but I tried to ignore them as much as possible.

I pulled out my new cell phone and logged onto the internet. I searched for vampire population in Hawaii. I was surprised to learn that most of the vampires lived on the big island of Hawaii where the Queen resided. There were less, but still a good number on Oahu, fewer on Maui and none reported on Kauai. Kauai didn't look like an good place to raise a child, or really to live on for that matter so I focused on Maui.

Most of Maui's tourist population was centered on the south and west sides, but to the East was a small town called Hana. The more I learned about it, the more I fell in love.

A review of the town said:  
><em>Hana is famous for the road leading to it, "The Road to Hana." The town of Hana is really an incredible place that is often overlooked. Though it doesn't offer much in the way of activities, Hana Town is a charming place to take in. Many of the few residents to live in Hana rarely leave their area. The people of Hana are deeply prideful of their Hawaiian Roots and live at a pace unfamiliar to the rest of the world<em>.

This is exactly what I was looking for, so long as there weren't any vampires living there. I decided to be brazen. I used my new phone to call the only hotel I could find in the listing, a place called the Hotel Hana Maui. The woman who answered had the most magical voice, a beautiful lilt that made me want to lay in a hammock and drink a daiquiri under the bright sun. I asked her if they had any light tight room for vampires. She sounded excited. "Yes, we have two sea ranch cottages that are adapted to fit the needs of vampires, and you would be our first vampire to visit."

This was sounding good so I asked a more important question, "So you don't have many vampires living in the area?"

She laughed, it had a beautiful sound, "Oh, no, this area is much too quiet and boring for vampires, they go to the larger islands or to the busier areas in Maui." I thanked her and hung up, feeling excited and nervous. I knew where we were going to go.

I eagerly pulled up information on flights from New Orleans to Maui. Crap, I thought, this was going to be more complicated than I had hoped. I would have at least two stops along the way and maybe…I didn't finish that thought because suddenly I had a trickle of feeling that came slipping through the bond…Eric was coming. He was almost here! My God, he could have walked in on my conversation, I am such an idiot. How had I missed him waking or the sun setting for that matter?

I started to panic. I stood up so fast that I knocked my chair over. I ran around the room to make sure that there weren't any signs of what I was planning laying around. I hadn't expected to see him tonight, or at all before I left. I hadn't allowed the thought to even cross my mind. How could I possibly talk with him when I had all of this swimming around in my mind? How would I keep myself together? This would probably be the last time I would ever see him...see him, touch him...oh God...the last time he would see me before I betrayed him grievously.

I was not used to premeditated devious behavior and I didn't know how to handle my emotions, lying was not part of my nature. I found myself standing still with my arms and legs locked tightly together holding myself upright. My hands were clenched over my pounding heart.

I had to get a grip or Eric would know that something was wrong. Actually, he probably already knew. I took a shaky breath and blew it out fast. I needed to relax, calm myself down before he saw me in this frantic state, but how? More wine, I thought, if I had a few glasses of wine, maybe I could dilute my intense emotional state. I snatched my empty glass off the table, ran to the kitchen, grabbed the bottle of white wine, poured another glass full and chugged it. Ugh. I'm not a good drinker and it was hard to get it down, but I managed. Within seconds, my ears felt warm, but I was still tense.

I let out a semi-hysterical giggle, which turned into a shriek as Eric's form was suddenly outside my door. "Sookie?" Eric asked through the closed door.

Oh no, my invitation…

A/N:

Sorry for the little cliffhanger...well not really ;)

-You are all so amazing. I am honored by your responses to this story. Your input really keeps me going! Thanks for hanging in there with me! I'll try to update as quickly as I can.

Hana, HI quote from the mauiinformationguide .com/hana

When we went to Hana, the hotel was known as the Hotel Hana Maui and from what I read, it was less oriented to the elite than it is now. I'm basing my story on the old place. It was, as we wrote to family on coconuts we mailed home, (just the coconut if you can believe it, with the address written on the outside) Hana is Heaven!

Check out this town, it is absolutely amazing, it's one of the places I go in my daydreams when I need an escape.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I'm crazy about you all, thank you so much!  
>These songs are the two that helped me write this chapter, I love them both.<p>

Trent Dabbs- Nothing Left To Leave (First half)  
>Sara Bareilles-Gravity (Second half)<br>-or just leave them on a replay loop

The words aren't a perfect fit, but the emotion I get from them is right.

Chapter 7 …Let me go

I twisted my fingers together, wishing I could simply turn away and pretend he wasn't out there, that this wasn't happening, but..."Eric Nothman, please come in," I whispered as I felt my body begin to shake. "Get a grip," I demanded of myself, yikes, I had said that out loud, maybe the wine was already working, blood loss, stress plus two glasses of wine makes for a tipsy me…well it was better than bursting into tears and spilling my guts.

Eric opened the door and quickly entered, spearing me a look that was a mix of irritation, curiosity and concern, "Sookie, why did you rescind my invitation?" he demanded, "What is going on? I've been getting...unsettling emotions from you this evening and you didn't return my calls or texts."

Oops, I had turned off my old phone and hadn't even thought that he might try and contact me.

I nodded quickly and decided not to answer about the invitation, "I'm fine, my phone is off and I'm just having a drink, can I get you something?" I asked, hiding behind my manners as I poured another glass of wine and took a large gulp.

"Sookie," he said as he walked toward me. He was using his 'I'm serious' voice, as I called it. That tone made me feel like I did when Gran caught me doing something I knew was wrong when I was a kid. I was going to miss it… "what are you not telling me?" He was standing inches from me now looking at me sternly.

He was beautiful, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He was like my own personal fallen angel. During the good times, he was a gift from the heavens sent to soften the torture of being a telepath. I closed my eyes and reveled in his silence, if I did this right, I would never have the relief of being near a silent mind again.

I couldn't hear his mind, but I could feel my heart breaking, and I felt as though my essential essence was being sucked into a huge hole in my chest. It was like quicksand and I didn't know if I would be able to breathe when he and all else I knew was gone. I opened my eyes to see him staring at me deeply, trying to discern what was going on from reading my emotions. He was irritated, angry, concerned and frustrated…with the focus on irritated. I gave a sad breathy little laugh and smiled, my Eric...my controlling, high-handed, superior-than-thou Eric…how would I live without him? His eyes narrowed and he touched my cheek. His touch was so gentle that it hurt.

I moved away from his hand, turning to the refrigerator to get him a drink. I grabbed the bottle of True Blood, opened it and popped it in the microwave. Eric leaned against the counter with his arms and legs crossed. He was waiting, none too patiently…I pretended not to notice his demanding glare. When the microwave beeped, I took out the bottle, shook it, grabbed my full glass of wine and motioned with my head that we should go sit down in the living room.

I basically crashed down on the couch and a drop of wine splashed out onto my sock. Eric sat down next to me, he took his drink and placed it on a coaster on the table, turned back to me and took my hand. I closed my eyes again as I began to feel my body tremble. I craved him, I needed him and I would never feel his touch again after tonight. Stop! I told myself, but I couldn't stop the grief from pouring through me and tears began to gather behind my eyelids.

"Sookie," his voice was still stern, "look at me." I shook my head, unable to form words. I let my head rest on his shoulder. My grief at the thought of losing him took my breath away.

Eric pulled away from me, took the wine glass from my hand, and held my face between his large hands, tilting my face up to him. "Look. At. Me. Sookie," he demanded now. I opened my eyes, just managing to keep my tears at bay. His deep blue eyes studied mine for a minute before I felt a flash of anger roll through the bond and he said incredulously, "You know." His eyes flickered to the door and then returned to mine, and his jaw tightened, "How did you find out?" he growled.

I didn't answer him, I was not going to fight with him, I couldn't have that be my last memory of him, his last memory of me, so I placed my hand on his cheek and then ran it up to his temple and through his hair. His skin was smooth and cool and his hair trickled through my fingers like silk.

Nothing either of us said could change the trajectory of our futures and I wanted to remember every inch of him. I wanted to score it into my memory so I could return to this moment when I was no longer with him. I looked at every inch of his beautiful face, with the exception of his eyes, I couldn't meet his gaze, it hurt too much, but he angled my face so that our gazes met and demanded, "Who told you this? Pam?" His accent was more apparent, underscoring his anger.

"No, not Pam, but it doesn't matter." I said quietly, still running my hands through his hair and down his arms.

His eyes softened as he gently placed his forehead to mine, "Sookie, this is not what I want," he said firmly. "We are bonded. _You_ are my wife. It is not my intent to leave you," he said intensely. I could see pain hidden behind the frustration in his eyes. He tried to block it from me, but he couldn't keep his emotions hidden. "I will find a way to stop the marriage, but Felipe will not support me. I think..."

I didn't let him finish his thought. If I let him give me excuses, I would just get upset and I couldn't allow that to happen, I was already in too much pain. I placed a finger to his lips and hushed him. "Eric, if I weren't part of the picture, would you want this marriage? Please, be honest."

I had caught him off gourd with my question. I shouldn't have asked it, but I needed to know he would be alright when I was gone. He shrugged one shoulder slightly, moved my hand and said, "The match is advantageous; it would allow me to be King and to have control over my own decisions. I have never wanted to be king, but I do not like having so many people telling me what to do, telling us what to do."

Eric would be King and he would be free from Felipe and Victor. Thank goodness. I felt a small part of me relax as I realized he would be safe and have the chance of being happy. I pictured how magnificent he would be as King…Oklahoma was very fortunate. I flinched internally a the thought of Eric with his Queen, in every way.

I brushed my fingers though his hair again and gave him a forced sad smile, "There you go then, everything will turn out just fine. I mean, I'm sorry you will have to be in Oklahoma of all places," I said in a false teasing tone, "if you thought Louisiana was boring..." he frowned. I continued, more serious now, "If you're worried about me, don't be." I said, shaking my head slightly, "I'm going down to Amelia's tomorrow night after work. I'll stay there for a while, maybe think about living there. It's…time for us to let each other go now anyway Eric." I think my heart literally stopped when I said those words, but it was what we had to do.

He was silent, staring at me but his fangs ran out, so I rambled on, feeling more nervous by the second, "I can fend for myself and Amelia will help. So, no matter what happens, just…be happy that you are free and…don't worry about me." I closed my eyes. Ugh, I'm such an idiot, why can't I keep my fat mouth shut? What the hell did I just say anyway? All I could hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears.

He growled at me in disgust and took my shoulders in both hands and gave me a light shake. "Why would you say that? Do you want me to leave? Or do you know of some threat Sookie? Are you in danger? Or has someone contacted you? Tell me now. Has someone contacted you Sookie?" His eyes were burning into mine.

"No Eric, and aren't I always in danger" I said with a small smile, trying to make a joke and diffuse the situation my anxiety and crumbling nerves had created. He wasn't fooled and growled again, his fingers tightening on my shoulders. I interrupted him, "Ouch," I said and he released me immediately.

I had to salvage this somehow, "I'm...I'm not making light of the situation Eric, but like you said the other night, it doesn't help me to worry about things that I can't control or change, I'm trying to do what you asked of me." He frowned as I used his words to deflect him.

I placed my hands on his face, nestling his cheekbones in my palms and gazed deep into his bright blue eyes. "What I do know Eric is that we don't have much time, so please, let's make the most of it." I leaned in and kissed him. I took my time, tasting his soft lips, feeling his cool, smooth skin under my lips and tongue. Eric didn't respond immediately, but I could feel his emotions swallow him up too, anger, hatred, worry, frustration, sadness, concern and love. Finally the love came through the bond and I let it fill me completely as he relaxed into the kiss and followed my lead.

I took my time enjoying the kiss, memorizing his taste, the feel of his lips and tongue, the way he gently used his hands to position me exactly as he wanted me, to maximize our pleasure. I ran my tongue over his fangs and then moved back. I brought my fingertips to his mouth and slid them down the length of his fangs, causing him to shudder as I knew it would, and then I ran the end of my finger across the sharp tip, drawing my blood. I traced my finger around his lips, he groaned in ecstasy and his tongue followed and cleaned his lips before sealing the small slice on my finger.

He paused momentarily, looking slightly perplexed and glancing briefly at the wine glass before shaking his head and returning his lips to mine. I took my time kissing every part of his face, stopping frequently to look deeply into the beautiful dark blue eyes that I loved so much. He kissed me reverently and I could feel my anguish and his anger and worry building as our intensity increased. His fingers curled in my hair, holding me tight to him, and he whispered, "Why does it feel like you are saying 'goodbye' to me Sookie?" His rough voice was filled with cautious concern.

"Aren't we?" I gasped, unable to control myself.

His hands jerked slightly and he pulled back to look at me, "No. Sookie. This isn't definite, I will not…" he began, a slight desperation mixed with censure in his voice.

"Please," I begged, "please just love me now. I need you Eric."

"Sookie, you must listen to me..."

I closed my eyes and a tear rolled down my cheek, I felt pain and regret flash through the bond, then he relented and scooped me up to carry me to the bedroom, kissing me along the way.

He pulled the comforter down and laid me gently on the sheet, knelt beside the bed and slowly began to undress me. I kept my eyes closed and reveled in each sensation he offered me. His lips and fingers explored each new inch of skin that was exposed, gliding smoothly over my skin like satin, making me feel as though he were worshiping me.

As he removed my shirt, he placed both of my arms above my head and slowly drew the material away. I arched to allow its passage. Eric's cool wet tongue drew a line from my hip bone up and over my breast and along my arm to my palm, causing me to shiver. Then his pace faltered and he returned to my elbow, his thumb caressing over my vein where I had the blood drawn.

My breath hitched, I couldn't stop it. He looked at me questioningly; I could see the varied possibilities of why I had blood drawn passing through his mind. "Sookie, why was this done?" he questioned. I shrugged and tried to draw him to me again. He did not move, he was still waiting for an answer.

I hadn't wanted to, but I lied to him for one of the first times, "I had blood drawn today, there's a need for my blood type, so I made a donation today." That was plausible and the truth. My blood type was needed so it wasn't a lie, I hoped.

Eric frowned but he must have believed me. He brought his finger to his fang and pierced it. He wanted to heal my tiny wound. Instinctively, I shied away internally and he felt it. He turned to look at me with the beginning of hurt in his eyes. Quickly I gave him a small smile and said, "Thank you." Eric rubbed his blood on the tiny wound on my arm and the one on my finger and then licked it away.

I hadn't wanted any more of his blood, fearing that it would make splitting the bond that much more painful, but not taking it would upset and alert him. The wound on his finger had already healed, but he took the remaining blood and painted my lower lip with it. I licked it away and then closed my eyes as I drew my lip into my mouth, cleaning it completely and I luxuriated in the sensation of his blood flowing through my body. My love for him pulsed with life and I groaned with the painful intensity of it.

Eric kissed me and then continued to remove my clothing. He gently unbuttoned my shorts and pulled them and my panties down past my toes, his tongue and fingers making the same torturous journey. His nose traced a path back up from my ankle along the inside of my leg to my thigh where he licked my artery and then my center. I moaned as his creative tongue entered me, followed by his talented fingers. His other arm wrapped around my lower back, raising me to him so that my hips were off the mattress. He drove me up the peek and over the edge of pleasure so lovingly that I cried out in bliss laced with despair.

I was still catching my breath, my broken heart pounding, when he climbed up my body, kissed me deeply and slowly entered me, filling me. My body clenched around him, holding him tightly, not wanting to let him go. He loved me so tenderly that it intensified the pain radiating thorough my heart. I couldn't handle it, so I released my pain to him and latched onto the intensely focused passion coming from him through the bond. I allowed it to overtake me, I wrapped myself around him and loved him as passionately as I was able, putting every ounce of love and feeling I had into each movement. He understood and once again followed my lead, we were swallowed by our passion and love, but the grief echoed in the background, always a reminder of our approaching loss.

As he held me afterwards, I felt him lick a single tear from my cheek and he whispered, "I love you, Sookie."

"I know. I feel it," I answered, wanting him to know I felt his love through the bond, through his actions, "and I love you, Eric." I did. I loved him so deeply. I knew it wasn't the bond, it was me, my heart, my love, my loss, my pain.

We made love twice more that night, each time tasting a different emotional palate of our passion for one another.

As dawn approached, he prepared to head back to Shreveport. I sat up in my bed and held him in my arms before kissing him goodbye.

"Sookie," he said seriously, trying in vain to press his influence on me, "do nothing. I will fix this. I will keep you safe."

I nodded, lying again to the man I loved.

He looked at me with concern once again etched on his face before turning and walking out my door. I heard my front door close and sensed him fly away before I finally allowed myself to break down in tears for the loss of my lover.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thank you everyone for your kind and heartfelt reviews and PMs regarding the last chapter. I loved writing it.

This chapter gives us a short break in the angst. We won't be hearing from Sookie for a few chapters, so this sets up a some details for her that are important for her future.

Chapter 8 Plan of Action

Day Two

I awoke feeling horrible, imagining that this must be how a brutal hangover feels, or maybe a terrible flu. I was generally really healthy and I didn't drink much so both were unknowns to me, but I'd experienced enough hangovers vicariously to know the despite my ill-advised drinking last night, this hangover was more emotional than alcohol induced. When I remembered the look on Eric's face as he left me, I covered my face with my hands and found that my cheeks were wet with tears, I must have been crying while I was sleeping. I felt my pillow and sighed, it was damp as well. I guess this was just the beginning of my teary nights.

Finally I decided to pry my eyes open to face the day and I yelped out in shock. Diantha was sitting on the end of my bed, tapping a thick envelope on her thigh. Her neon green shirt and pink stretch pants paired with her flaming red hair were enough to make me need to squint my eyes so soon upon waking. She smiled brightly, "Sorrytowakeya," she said, running her words together. I was familiar with the cadence of her speech, but I always had to work hard to make sure I caught every word.

I was none too pleased to find her sitting in my room, but relieved to have the papers and I knew she was doing me a favor by coming here, so I decided to be gracious. "That's Okay, I should be up anyway. How'd you get in here?"

She didn't answer me, but gave me a wicked smile, she was not going to answer me. "Gotyerpaperwork."

"Oh, thanks," I answered, a little irritated at her avoidance of my question, and then I realized what a hypocrite I was being, I had done more than my fair share of avoiding direct questions last night. I guess we all had our little secrets, and some not so little.

Diantha stood up and suddenly her face just inches from mine, "Uncle says follow the plan and then run. Fast," she said this all slowly and clearly and I felt a chill run up my back.

"Did something happen?" I asked her.

She shook her head, "Vultures are circling, you'rethemeat," she said in an uncharacteristically serious tone.

I closed my eyes for a moment. How in the world was I ever going to get away? Every instinct was telling me to run right now, to use the light to get away before I had to face one more night, but I knew I had to wait until just before dawn tomorrow morning. I needed to cover my tracks and if I didn't break the bond, I wouldn't have a chance. I just hoped I made it to tomorrow.

When I opened my eyes, I realized that Diantha was listening something outside, "Gottago. GoodluckSookieStackhouse," she said and then she was gone. I thought she had left through the back door, but I couldn't tell, she was so silent and fast.

My hand moved of it's own accord to pick up the heavy envelope Diantha had tossed on my lap. On the front there were two words, 'Miss. Stackhouse' written in small perfect letters, almost like type print.

I got out of bed and went into the kitchen, placed the envelope on the table and started some coffee. I checked the door, found it unlocked and snicked the lock closed before I finally sat down; facing the envelope that seemed to be screaming, 'Open me'.

I had a flashback to opening Gran's letter yesterday, was that really only yesterday? Two major moments of truth for me here at the kitchen table in as many days, it was more than I could handle and my hands began to shake. I had to remind myself that the contents of this package would allow Hunter and I to change our lives, hopefully for the better. If this was true then why was I such a wreck about opening it? I waited for the coffee to be ready and poured myself a cup before I reluctantly grasped the pull-strip and opened the envelope. The contents included a stack of paper, a small sealed envelope that was made from a thick cream paper and two larger heavy white envelopes, which I assumed contained our IDs. The top sheet had writing in the same perfect print. It read:

Dear Miss Stackhouse,

You will find all of the items we discussed enclosed. The PO Box listed below is the location to which follow up identification will be sent every 5 years. The Identification will be updated to meet current licensing requirements, and your date of birth will be adjusted as needed. If you have further needs regarding your identification, write it in a letter and send it to this address. Your needs will be met within a week.

Following our conversation, I was informed that Jonathan should also receive the same identification modifications once he turns 25 in the case that he too needs this assistance. Simply destroy them if they are unnecessary.

I wish you the best,

Desmond Cataliades

I couldn't bring myself to look at the letter from my ancestor just yet, which I assumed was in the smaller envelope, so I opened the white envelope with my name on it. I found a Louisiana license stating my name as Jeanne Adele Holden, the photo was one that was taken at the Queen's headquarters for security purposes. I also had a social security card, birth, marriage, death certificates and a passport with a slightly different photo. My packet also included six credit cards and a book of checks.

Hunter had a social security card and birth certificate and his name was Jonathan H. Landry. I liked the last name; it made me think of the Little House on the Prairie. I had a huge Daddy crush on Michel Landon when I was younger and it gave me a tiny bit of comfort.

In the other envelope, Remy had all the same items except for the license and passport; he was now Michael Everett Coburn. Remy also had a list of references for when he applied for a new job, a prepaid VISA card for $50,000 and a note from Mr. Cataliades that this money was to be used to help keep Hunter safe during the transition. Wow, that was really generous, but they would need the money to pay for a hotel and buy new clothes and to hold Remy over since he would have to leave his job and all their belongings behind. There was also a sealed envelope for Remy, the contents of which I could only imagine. The front of this letter said it was to be given to him once he had passed Jonathan into my care.

I had no excuses anymore; I opened the smaller envelope and pulled out a heavy piece for paper with the words written in flowing feminine lines and dated with yesterday's date. I gave up being surprised, it seemed that all things were possible in my freaky world, so I began to read:

'Kaikamahine-

I am very proud of you, daughter of mine, as you have willingly accepted the Pa and are moving toward Mana. Have caution, trust none, but learn from all. Grow; expand yourself and your abilities. When your kupuna who help you tonight come for you, go, they have much knowledge and their home is a pu'uhonua for us. Use the wealth provided to protect and aid both you and Jonathan on your journey. Wear the pendant always, and I will come to you in time. I love you both, my hanau.

Kou Makuahine

What the…Kaikamahine, Makuahine, hanau…they all sounded like Hawaiian words. Could she be letting me know that she was aware of my destination, perhaps even approving of it? She knew of Hunter and appeared to claim him as well as myself as her relative. She called me her daughter, did she mean that literally? I would have to get translations for the Hawaiian words once things settled down, if they ever did.

I wondered if she would come to me in a week or a hundred years, more ambiguities. Just once, I'd like to get a straight answer from someone. Oh hell, I guess if I'm not going to age, I had plenty of time to be patient while waiting for my ancestor to show herself. I was a little shocked at myself and the ease with which I was accepting that I had a strange newfound bloodline and that I would not be aging and would be apparently going through puberty as I changed in some unknown way...so maybe I wasn't totally okay with this, but it sure didn't sound like fun. Puberty sucked, but I guess the benefit to spending time with supes and vampires was that it made this concept a little easier to grasp than it would otherwise have been. Plus I always thought there was more to the story of my genetic lineage. Out of the primordial ooze came…oh well.

I tipped the envelope again and gasped as a necklace slid out onto my hand. It was breathtaking. Dangling from a delicate looking but sturdy chain made of links of mixed silver and iron was a large, deep green, tear shaped gem. I looked closer at the pendant, taking it over to study below a direct light and found that inside the gem was what appeared to be a small black ball. Rising from this ball were darker greenish wisps that reminded me of smoke, with some bits dense and curled like a snail shell and others diffuse. It was absolutely breathtaking, I had never seen anything like this before. I knew it must be very special and unique. I immediately fastened it around my neck and the gem sat perfectly just above my breasts as though it had been sized for me.

I fingered the smooth texture of the gem for a moment, I loved it. I was touched and felt a sense of security from the fact that someone from my bloodline would give me something so unique and clearly valuable. It gave me a tiny piece of comfort to shield me from the devastation of my grief and fear. My fingers slid along the length of the dual metal chain and I realized that my ancestor must be aware of the dangers I was facing to give me these two metals to wear always.

I forced myself to return to the task at hand and unclipped the packet of pages, moved the letter from Mr. Cataliades and realized, as I knocked over my coffee in shock that the next page was a bank statement. I was able to grab enough napkins to mop up my mess before it stained the pages and then continued staring at the statement. The balance of the account was over 25 million dollars. I was stunned, I couldn't move, I was afraid to touch the paper in case I would hurt it or lose it somehow. What the...who in the world needed this much money? I certainly didn't, I was just a barmaid, I wouldn't have the first clue how to spend this kind of money. After staring at the page for what felt like 10 minutes, I turned to the next and then the next pages and found that there were four more accounts in my new name through varying banks, with somewhere near 25 million dollars in each of them totaling over…Jesus Christ Shepherd of Judea! I was a multi, multi-millionaire.

I laughed out loud in stunned disbelief; this was crazy, it couldn't be real, could it? It had to be real, Mr. Cataliades wouldn't joke about money. He had been sitting on these funds since I was born. I reflected on how hard things had been sometimes with our limited income, well this money would certainly help more than a little bit to make things easier for Hunter and I.

I could buy a house for us and a car and security if we needed it. We could use it to run again if things got too dangerous. Now I was getting excited and a list of things we needed and could now afford ran through my mind. Some of my fears diminished and I knew that that was why the money was given to us, and I felt very grateful to our relative who wished to help alleviate some of my burden during this transition.

Typically I hated taking anything from others, but this situation was different. I would have nothing at all once I left, and I would have to protect and support a child as well as myself. I would accept this generous gift graciously.

I looked at the clock and jumped up when I realized the time, it was now 9:50am and I was due at work for the late shift at 5:00pm. I needed to pack, go to Monroe to meet with Remy and Hunter and shop for a few items with my new credit cards, so I couldn't shop around here where I might be recognized.

I rushed over to get my new phone and again, I pulled up searches for flights from New Orleans to Maui. I had to have a flight that left at 9:00am at the earliest and hopefully no later than 10:00am. I didn't want to wait around the airport too long for fear of being recognized, but I couldn't bet on getting there any earlier since I didn't really know what was in store for me and I wouldn't think about it since I started to lose what calm I had managed to achieve each time I wondered what was going to happen to me tonight.

Even though I was planning my trip last minute, I had no idea it would be so hard to find a good flight to Maui. Not only was it a long flight, but there were many layovers. I had hoped to find a flight straight to Maui, but realized that this was impossible because they just didn't offer them. Then I had hoped to find a flight with one stopover in California before Maui, but the best I could do was a flight at 9:20 to Houston and then to San Francisco. Yes, I know, Texas was one of the last places I wanted to be, but it was the lesser of many evils. This flight plan got me into San Francisco by 3:00pm giving me plenty of time to get to a hotel by nightfall. I was also able to book a front row seat that was all by itself for the first flight. This was perfect since I was sure I would not be pleasant to sit next to.

The next day I would leave San Francisco at 7am and arrive in Maui at 9:36 am thanks to the time change, giving me ample time to shop and travel to Hana before sunset. It was imperative that I keep hidden during the nighttime hours. I couldn't risk even the slightest chance of a vampire smelling or recognizing me, word spread way too fast in the Supe community. I remembered how Quinn had known I was traveling to Texas due to Sam posting it on the shifter website. I could just see the webpages filling up with chatter if I were spotted. So, with my fingers crossed that any Weres I ran into would not recognize me, I booked those flights and paid extra for first class seats, shaking off my guilt for spending the additional money, I would need the comfort and would have to get used to living within my new means. Great excuses...right? I entered my new personal information and paid with my new credit card and pressed 'enter'. I was booked on a flight to Maui leaving in less than 24 hours.

The clock that had been ticking in my head since yesterday seemed to get louder and faster, the countdown had begun.

I spent the next period of time hiring a driver to take me around Maui while I shopped for needed supplies and to drive me to Hana. I also set up an appointment with a personal shopper at a high end department store to get some clothes since I'd need lots of help in that area, and then I realized that I hadn't booked my hotel room in Hana yet.

I found the number for the Hotel Hana Maui in my phone memory and the same woman answered with her lovely greeting. I explained that I was moving to the area and would like to book a room for a month. She explained the various room types and I chose a Sea Ranch Cottage which seemed to be a large one room cottage with a lanai, or deck as I understood it to be right on the ocean. There was one other cottage attached to it next door, but she ensured me that it was private. I made sure that my cottage was far from the ones that were light tight even though they had yet to have a vampire guest. I received my confirmation email from her within five minutes.

I had one more step that I could think of now, I needed to contact a realtor to take me looking for homes on Monday. I wanted to give myself Saturday and Sunday to rest as I was sure I would be a wreck from jet lag and emotional turmoil. I went a realtor website, pulled up available properties for Hana and found myself in absolute awe of the properties and the prices. I called the realtor who had listed all of the properties and made an appointment for Monday, explaining which types of properties I was interested in seeing. The secretary was very accommodating and said that Ian would be waiting for me on Monday at 9:00 am with a list of properties for us to visit.

I sat back with a sigh. Done. It was now 12:30pm. I only had four hours to pack, talk with Hunter, do my shopping and get to work. Jason's face flashed through my mind, followed by Tara, JB, Pam, Hoyt and all the other people I would miss and not see before I left. It was possible I would see some of them tonight at work, but truthfully, I hoped not, I didn't think I could handle it.

Instead of moping around, I decided to focus on packing for Amelia's and to find the few things I could plan to take with me. Everything that I would pack for Amelia's would be left behind in my car so I threw together the contents for that bag in about 10 minutes.

When that easy task was completed, I began wandering around the house touching and holding dear items that I knew I could not take with me. Family quilts, I hoped Jason would care for them, my grandfather's iron trowel, I would have to find a replacement to keep in my new home, beloved pictures of Gran and my parents, Jason and I…wait, actually I could take these with me. As deftly as possible, I pulled down the frames of my favorite photos and carefully took the pictures out. I would copy them at the Monroe Wal-Mart and then return them to their places. I did the same with a few baby and school pictures as well as ones of Hadley for Hunter. I would have to tell Remy to send some photos with Hunter when he came.

I also slipped in the 'Hunks of Fangtasia' calendar to copy a photo of Eric, but then took it back out of the pile. I had a few pictures on the phone Eric had sent to me, but I didn't know how to print them out and I figured that maybe it was best to go cold turkey in my separation from Eric (especially considering the type of photos he had sent to me). A few minutes later, I slipped the calendar back into the pile again, although I figured that I might regret this particular decision later.

I was feeling better, having secured the photos. Other things were just that, things. They were all attached to memories, but with the photos safely stored for copying, the loss of the other items seemed smaller somehow.

The only items that it hurt me terribly to part with were Gran's jewelry, the family china and the winter coat Eric had given me. Ugh, that was a mistake, thoughts of Eric made me look at my bed and grief poured over me as I replayed the intimacies Eric and I had shared there last night and so many other nights. I picked up the pillow he had rested on and hugged it to me, and although it was a sad imitation of my lover, his smell reached out to me from the fabric. I breathed him in and allowed a few tears to fall again, but grief was not something I could allow myself to indulge in right now.

I stripped the pillowcase, replaced it with a clean one and tucked it in a plastic bag to travel with me. (I would purchase a carry-on suitcase in Monroe this afternoon.) Along with the pillowcase, I placed my new pendant and the cluviel dor, all the information from Mr. Cataliades, Gran's letter and a few more personal correspondences from family and friends that no one else would miss. I was surprised to note that I was more reluctant to part with the pendant than the cluviel dor, but the pendant was a symbol of my future and the cluviel dor belong to my past. I found that I was satisfied with what I was able to take, I had been threatened with losing more when my house was burned. If the flames had continued, I would have lost everything, so this was not so bad really I counseled myself somewhat ineffectively. Plus losing things paled in contrast to losing my loved ones and I only had so much emotional strength at this point.

I wiped the internet history clean on my phone and made a mental note of all that I needed to do before getting to work.

I was set.

As I made one more sweep around the house, touching the beloved items that held so much of my family history and readied myself to leave my home, I reviewed the checklist that I wrote only in my mind.

If on paper it would have read:

Gran's grave

Hunter and Remy

Pictures

Shop

Work

Drive

'Die'

...

RUN LIKE HELL

A/N: Here is a link to the pendant Sookie's ancestor gave her. I'll add more links later once you get some other details about it...

www. vintagejewelrysupplies . com/peridot/965-peridot-pear-shape-glass-jewelry-stone-18x13mm-. html (without the spaces)

I'm setting up another site to hold pictures and links. I'll put it on my profile page when I get it worked out.

-The next two chapters are from Eric's Point of View.-


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 House of Cards

EPOV

"The truth Pam. Did you tell Sookie?" I questioned my child, standing over her, imposing my will on her to get the truth.

She knew this was coming, she had sensed my anger. "I didn't tell her anything. You forbade me to talk with her about her 'husband's' marriage to someone else. Remember?" she said with her usual leer when we discussed this topic. She had been furious with me for keeping Sookie in the dark; she was blinded by her friendship and did not see the whole picture.

She thought I was being selfish, accused me of putting my claim on Sookie above her wellbeing. She angered me by saying our marriage was just a farce and that if I loved her, I should just let Sookie go.

What Pam didn't realize was that I couldn't let her go, our marriage was real even though Sookie fought against the concept, she simply couldn't move beyond her societies' expectation of human weddings to accept a vampire marriage, but it didn't matter. My love for her was real, as was her love for me. I would find a way to keep her safe and with me. She was mine, my lover, my wife, mine. No one would force us apart.

And now I was sure that my valid concerns, which had kept me from telling Sookie in the first place, were playing out. I had lost control of the situation somehow, but it had not occurred directly through Pam.

"Did you talk with anyone about it?" I felt her guilt, "Pam…the truth," but I knew already there was only one person she would talk to about personal information…Miriam. I growled as my child admitted her error.

"Eric, I'm sorry that I told Miriam, but I'm not sorry that Sookie knows. She needed to be informed about this. By not telling her Eric, you are leaving her out to dry, she must be on the alert so that she can at least try to protect herself."

I grabbed the front of my child's silk blouse, not caring as I heard it tear and pressed her firmly against the wall, "Do you not think that I would do everything in my power to protect her if I have to leave? Do you really think I would ever leave her unguarded and without a plan when I know the forces that are just waiting for me to step away?" I let her go and turned around in disgust with Pam, with myself and with the entire situation. "It's all I think about. And, you," I looked back around to glare at her, "questioning me all the time…it is not helpful Pamela," I growled through my teeth.

My willful child held her chin up high, just as I had taught her, "She should still know," she said stubbornly.

"And so she does," I snapped back at her as I crossed my office in Fangtasia.

I reviewed the events of last night at Sookie's home. To say that I was unsettled when I left her would be a massive understatement. From the moment I woke, I was bombarded by the most intense and desperate emotions from my bonded. I had not planned on seeing her that evening, expecting to spend the whole night talking with my lawyers to try and make the marriage contract void in light of my maker's demise, but she pulled me to her, I needed to know what was causing her so much grief.

I was furious when I found out that she had learned of the contract and then she had all but pushed me out the door, essentially giving up on me, on us. It was driving me crazy, I was even having trouble focusing my thoughts which was never a problem for me. Every instinct was nagging me to bring her to my side, forcibly if needed, to keep her safe, but I knew I would lose her forever if I did anything to her against her will and I knew she would not come to me willingly, not after learning this information. She needed to get away, to think and I would allow her the space and time she desired.

"Then help her run," Pam interrupted my reflections, "help her flee while there is still time. She could get away Eric, live a safe life somewhere away from all the dangers that plague her constantly. Her life here is crap anyway, what human wouldn't want to get away from it?"

I shook my head, she didn't understand Sookie the way I did, "She would never leave Bon Temps, no matter how bad it got, I can't even get her to quit her job. She is too stubborn to care for herself and she has survived too many close calls to take the danger seriously. She won't leave."

"She would Eric, if you explained the dangers to her, clearly and completely. How many proposals have you received since Rhodes offering to buy her from you, at the cost of extraordinary sums of money and favors? Twenty at least, and as soon as you sign the papers, she will cost someone nothing but maybe a scuffle with another to be the first to get to her. What if Orrick from the Dakotas wins her? You do remember how he treats humans, right? She wouldn't last a week there and you know it."

Pam was right in that Piers Orrick, an 800 year old English vampire was one of the worst possibilities for Sookie, but she was also wrong, Sookie would survive, she just wouldn't be Sookie anymore after that first week. Orrick had a habit of brutally over-taming his humans and his first desire would be to break her will and her spirit the moment he realized she could not be controlled through a bond or glamour. Orrick had sent repeated offers to me, he was eager to have a telepath of her power and notoriety to bring increased standing to his weak state and position. I had been plagued by worries of Orrick or someone just as despicable getting their hands on Sookie every moment since Appius showed me the marriage contract.

"I will not allow that to happen," I said forcefully.

"How will you stop it Eric? If you don't relent and sign the pages, you lose everything you own, including Sookie, and that leaves her in the same position she is in now…Fucked! You know I supported your efforts to find a way out because I feel how very much you love her, but there is no more time. You must let her go Eric, and now."

What Pam didn't say was that if I backed out of the contract without my King's support, I, and each of my children would lose everything, but I knew this was of no concern to Pam, with the exception of her Miriam. Pam was ready for this possibility; she had a plan already in motion to hide Miriam and her brother.

"I am not ready to take that step Pam, and so I will not. I do not accept what I find objectionable and this situation is completely unacceptable," I said through my teeth.

"There are still more cards to play, I just need to organize them in the right way so that I come out on top. There have been many times when it appeared that all my options were played out. But I have learned, and you have witnessed, that there is always another option, I just haven't found it yet…and, yes, I am acutely aware that my time is running out, I don't need you adding to my stress." What I didn't tell her was that I was sure that I had overlooked something…something small yet vital to all of us, but I would find it before my time ran out. I had to there was no other acceptable option.

I turned back to Pam, softening my glare a little. She knew she was not forgiven yet, but that she was no longer in danger of my wrath and she relaxed.

"The reason I decided not to tell Sookie the truth, and what has me most concerned at this moment is that I have now lost control of the variables regarding Sookie's actions. Before this, I could predict what she would do, and so I did not have to worry about her doing something foolish, but now I don't know how she will react to learning this information. I am concerned that she has already reacted. I feel that something significant is going on with her Pam, in fact, I am sure of it. What do you imagine her reaction to learning this information would have been?"

Pam smiled deviously, quickly shelving her frustration, "I'm sure she was furious with you, or did she refuse to speak with you at all? Either would be plausible reactions until you managed to calm her down from being livid."

I nodded and frowned, "Those were the reactions I expected as well."

Pam's smile faded, "She wasn't upset?"

"No, at least not by the time I got there, and that is what concerns me. At some point during the day, she rescinded my invitation, but when I found her, she was sad, very sad but also nervous and guilty. She let me in right away and informed me that she had come to terms with my marriage and departure…she told me not to worry about her…she was ready to say 'goodbye'," I added, irritated that I had to admit this, even to Pam.

Pam looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.

"Then she definitely knows something that we don't; Sookie doesn't give up without a fight." She paused, debating her next words and then carefully continued, "Are you sure that she still loves you and did you make it clear that this is not your plan?" Pam asked. She was entering dangerous territory.

I growled at her, "Of course she still loves me and I made it abundantly clear that it is not my desire to leave her…but she is still hiding something. It can't be good and will probably get her hurt. I just don't know what it is. This is exactly why I wanted to keep it from her Pamela, Sookie over-reacts and always ends up putting herself in danger. I will have to keep a closer watch on her and get her permanent security lined up to take affect right after she returns from New Orleans."

Pam looked at me with a slight frown.

I shrugged, "She is going to spend a few days with Amelia. She's leaving tonight after she finishes work. I have hired a Were to follow her to New Orleans, to ensure that she gets there safely and I have already lined up security with Amelia in New Orleans and she has enhanced her wards. Sookie will be safe there, it's when she returns here that I am concerned for her safety."

Pam nodded. "Do you need my assistance?"

"Only if I leave," I clenched my fists at the thought. "I have an emergency plan that will be set into motion the minute I sign the papers if there is no other option, but you will not be needed to do anything for that. In the meantime, I've contacted Herveaux and tonight I'll call the witches in the area to set up additional security for her when she returns, but at this point, it is unknown how long she will be away."

I said this purely for Pam's comfort, to ease her worry for her friend because I couldn't fathom the idea that I might not be here whenever she returned. I wouldn't even contemplate it more than to set up a plan and leave it in the hands of my lawyers. I had things set to leap into action and whisk Sookie away to safety if need be. The best scenario would have been to involve Cataliades since Sookie already knew him a little, but he was too ensconced in local vampire politics to be sure that he could handle this silently and with Sookie's best interest as his primary concern.

Sookie had known the timeline was short for the marriage contract, and had apparently accepted the possibility that we might not see one another again, much better than I had. In the back of my mind I knew clearly that if I did not find a way out of this, that I would have to leave, if for no other reason than to keep Sookie safe.

I sent Pam on her way to deal with her ailing Miriam and I forced myself back to my desk to once again call my lawyer, try and contact Philippe and speak to old friends to see if any solution could be discovered. I found it impossible to focus fully, Sookie kept popping back up in my mind, tugging at me with her sad, deep eyes. The unwelcome vacuum that had begun to form in my chest last night when she whispered that she believed we were saying 'goodbye' returned to me. I would not lose her. She was mine and I would not give her up.

I thought about checking on her through the bond, to see exactly what she was doing. I could feel the familiar patterns of her emotions when she was at work, but the prevailing emotions I was barraged with were grief, fear, fatigue and guilt…why the guilt? And if she was sure that she could 'take care of herself', then why the fear? What was going on? What had she done?

I thought through the consequences of a number of potential knee-jerk reactions and each made me more worried for her than the next. I texted the Were who would be following her to New Orleans and reinforced the potential level of danger of the situation, requesting a second Were be present just in case.

This step did not decrease my concern, I needed to know exactly what she was thinking, why she was so upset. I had, on occasion, 'looked' more deeply into the bond, but tonight would not be as enjoyable to me as the experience usually was. I smiled to myself as I remembered the first night that I tested the bond in this way. I had been here at Fangtasia, sitting in my booth, when I felt Sookie becoming sexually aroused.

I was extremely irritated, this was before we had reinstated our physical relationship and after she had ended things with Quinn. She had been mine, would be mine again, and I despised the idea of someone else touching her. In my anger, I probed the bond forcefully and found that by pressing all my thoughts and focus into it, I could become significantly more aware of her body's actions, her emotions and her environment. That journey had been very satisfying indeed as I learned that she was pleasuring herself while thinking of me. Of course she was, she was made for me and I was the only one for her.

My satisfied smile melted as I returned to her current emotional state. No, I would not intrude on these feelings. I forced myself to lock thoughts of her into a small part of my mind, a skill that allows me to always keep the upper hand by decreasing distractions from unnecessary thoughts, and I focused on my immediate problem.

Three frustratingly unproductive hours later, my attention was again drawn back to Sookie as my phone rang, I was concerned when I saw that it was Sam; he never had good news for me. "Northman," I snapped into the phone.

"Eric, this is Sam Merlotte," he waited and when I didn't respond, he continued, "what the hell is going on with Sookie?"

Now he had my attention, "You will need to be more specific than that."

He huffed, and I could hear him pulling his hand through his hair as I knew he did when upset. "She called out sick last night, she is never sick and tonight, she was a total wreck. She was close to tears the whole night and she jumped every time the door opened as though she were expecting to be attacked. Is she in danger?"

As far as I knew, she hadn't been ill but she had been upset due to hearing about my maker's manipulations. When I asked her if she was in danger, she had deflected my question by stating that she was always in danger. I certainly wasn't about to tell Sam about what had upset Sookie, it was none of his business, and so I attributed her jumpiness to the attacks at his bar in the last week, which on reflection, could be the truth.

Merlotte did not accept my explanation.

"No, it's more. I've known Sookie for a long time Eric, something is going on. When she left tonight, I felt as though she were saying 'goodbye' to me. Not just see you later, but a permanent 'goodbye'. What the fuck is going on?" he said angrily.

I was disturbed to hear his report, I had felt that she was saying 'goodbye' to me as well, but had attributed it to her anticipating my leaving, not hers…not her leaving…however, if she was giving the same message to Merlotte, then either she was running or she knew that she was in serious danger. The mouse I had my hand on groaned and snapped into pieces.

Fuck! This is just what I had feared, she was overreacting…or was there some danger…something I wasn't aware of…the bar had been attacked twice in just a few days…and I had been so distracted that I hadn't looked into the details thoroughly…or had she somehow learned about the dangers surrounding her, ready to strike the second my time ran out? Was she readying herself to be snatched away, or perhaps she had made a different plan with someone…

"Eric, you there?" Sam asked.

"Yes, just thinking," I felt for her, she was where she should be, on her way south toward New Orleans and I told Sam this, although it did not appease him. I thought about calling the Were I had shadowing her to keep even closer tabs on her, but knew that this would cause Sookie to sense the pursuit and perhaps act out in fear, putting herself in more danger. No, my instructions to keep a distant eye on her would be sufficient to deflect even a direct attack.

"Do you think that the attacks on your bar were directed at her?" I questioned.

He paused as he thought this over, "The fire, who knows, but I do believe the Weres were after her, I haven't figured out why yet. Do you know?"

"No," I admitted ruefully, but I was confident that if she really were in danger, I would know…unless…she has all but admitted the other night that she kept things from me. The possibility of her being involved in dangerous plots behind my back made my fangs run out from anger and concern.

"Listen Eric," Sam said conciliatorily, we won't ever be buddies, but the least we could do is create a coalition to keep Sookie safe, can you agree to that?"

I couldn't find a reason to disagree, I knew I could trust him with my bonded even if he did covet her. I also liked his way of thinking and his words started to trickle into other problem areas I was dealing with right now…showing me new cards to play.

"I agree," I said with a smile, my ego feeling a rebirth of strength and independence, "I will be in touch when I hear from her."

"Thank you," Sam said and he ended the call.

My confidence grew and my strategy solidified as I returned home. I could see each step of the plan laid out before me now and I knew I would not fail. This was the small piece of the puzzle that I had been missing and that had plagued me for the past few weeks. Now the upper hand would be mine, as it usually was, as I always demanded it would be in the end.

The fact that I hadn't thought of this tactic myself irritated me, but my smile grew as I flipped through my contacts and pressed send, the time for passivity and avoiding politics had come to an end.

Freyda answered, "Northman, I hope you have good news for me."

"Your Majesty, I apologize for the late hour." I stated with the customary eloquence due to her rank.

"Hmmmmm, you know Eric, if you would just sign the papers, we could have these pre-dawn conversations in bed, and please call me Freyda, you know I hate all that 'Your Majesty' dribble from you, it is beneath you, it has always been beneath you."

I smiled; my maker had indeed made a good match. If it weren't for Sookie, I would have been content to marry Freyda. We had been allies for the last 500 years, had fought together in the fae war and at each other's sides many times as the need arose. I could not blame her for this situation since Appius had developed the contract with her maker, Elsobeth who was older by two hundred years than even Appius, no this was not Freyda's fault in the least.

"Freyda, I have a proposal for you," I said slyly, knowing her preferred type of humor well.

"Oh, goody, are you on your knee, holding a tiny diamond ring, ready to pledge your undying love for me?" she taunted good-naturedly.

I chuckled inwardly, "Not that kind of proposal, but a more advantageous one for both of us."

"Ooooo, now I am intrigued, please…propose away," she crooned.

Now to present my plan in a way that she couldn't refuse, "Marriage is used in our world mostly to bind together two untrusting individuals in a hundred year agreement to support and defend the other party when they would otherwise not have done so. Correct?" I posed.

"That is the general way of things, yes."

"We have a history of supporting one another, and unless I am wrong, we are actually partial to one another," I continued.

"Yes, and so more the reason for us to be wed," she argued.

"I see it differently. Why would we waste the opportunity to wed to another, less-willing state for the additional support they would otherwise not give, by marrying a willing supporter?" I queried.

"Go on…" she said.

"What I propose, is that we create a formal coalition together. We already have an informal agreement, but we could make it formal and exactly like a marriage contract. Then we would be able to add to our power and security by marrying another influential player, with each others approval of course."

"The contract is finalized, has been for some time, it cannot be broken or you will be punished and lose all that is yours."

"Yes, if I break the contract, not if we and Elsobeth mutually agree to modify one word. If we change the word 'marriage' to 'coalition', I will be free from any penalty and we will both be much stronger and more secure as a result. Elsobeth will have no reasonable option but to agree, given that her concern is your safety."

"It is, but you would still be a Sheriff, Eric. I wanted to make you King, as you should be," she argued. I smiled, If her primary concerns were helping me avoid punishment and wanting to make me King, then I was already King.

"That is part of my proposal. If we join in a formalized, hundred-year coalition, I would help you to overthrow Castro in Nevada. He is weak and has few who would support him. All I ask is to retain Louisiana as her King. We could then decide together what to do with Nevada and Arkansas."

"What is it that you really want Eric," she questioned.

"Autonomy. You know that I have never handled being overseen well. I want autonomy and Victor Madden's head. He owes me pain," I growled.

"Is she really that dear to you, Eric?" she saw right through to the core of things as usual.

"Amazingly enough, yes Freyda. A first for me," I admitted.

"Hmmm, I like this idea. I'll contact Cataliades first thing tomorrow evening and have him write up a 'proposal' for modifying our contract," she said with a smile in her voice.

"One more thing," I added, "my child would like to become a maker but is being blocked by Madden. Time is short for her, so I would like to move this along quickly."

"Do you see any reason why this coalition might not work out for us?" she asked casually.

"No, that is why I presented it to you," I said with confidence.

"Then tell Pam to go ahead with becoming a maker, I accept her and her new child as temporary citizens of Oklahoma."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I will tell her right away," I was sure that both Pam and Sookie could feel my relief and satisfaction, not to mention the bloodlust at the thought of getting my hands on Victor.

"I look forward to talking with you tomorrow Eric, I am pleased with this turn of events…although I will miss pillow talk with you," she said with a smile in her voice.

I laughed as I hung up and called Pam to let her know that she could change Miriam. I tried to reach Sookie on her cell, but my call went straight to her messages.

"Lover," I said in the voice that I knew made her shiver, "I have solved our problem. I expect to have my wife in my arms within a few nights, so hurry home to me Sookie," I demanded seductively and hung up the phone with a satisfied grin crossing my face.

I would be King and Sookie would remain safely with me.

It was about time.

I already felt like a King and it fit well.

A/N: Thank you everyone for your continued support. I'm really enjoying sharing this with you.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Tumbling to Earth

EPOV

I congratulated myself on my fine plan and visualized slicing my sword into Victor, ripping into his flesh to remove that smug smile. I had never purged from my mind the self-satisfied smirk he wore on his face as he watched me bear the suffering of my bonded at the hands of the fae. I would enjoy teaching him about the consequences of short-sighted plans.

As I walked to the kitchen to get a true blood, I felt my child becoming a maker. It was a most magical time for us and I leaned back on the counter to appreciate the feeling. This would not be my first 'grandchild', but the first I would have in close proximity. Miriam seemed worthy, she was certainly a good match for Pam and she was extraordinarily talented, but I was mildly concerned about how her ailing and drug-filled body would respond to the change. Pam's blood was powerful, having been made by me, and I knew I should have confidence that her child would be strong.

I heated the blood and returned to the office on my way to the hidden door of my secure sleeping chamber, for my first satisfied rest in many weeks.

I realized that my Sookie must have just heard my voice mail because out of the blue, she sent me the sweetest dose of love through the bond. I stopped to enjoy the sensation of warmth in my heart where the bond resides. She would be coming home to me soon.

On impulse I selected two books to bring into my sleeping chamber, The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Niccolo Machiavelli's Il Principe. The first covers the basic premises on how to wage war, command troops and maintain morale of a country and the second instructs rulers on the proper way to govern a country. I had read both already, but enjoyed re-reading some favored passages and the notes I made in the margins. I had taken to making notes and placing the date alongside them to see how my perception of the author's ideas changed with my experiences over time. It was from these notes that I gained the most insight.

I was passing my desk when I felt a trickle of fear from Sookie making it's way through the bond. I can't count the number of times in the last month alone that I have felt her fear, but each time and especially since the fae kidnapped her, the onset of her fear tortured me with visions of this being the one time she wouldn't be lucky. I hoped vainly that she had simply averted a typical driving accident or seen something in passing that frightened her, but it was not to be…

I froze as her fear grew suddenly into terror and despair. I had felt terror from her before, just like the fear…but despair…no, never despair, not since the horrible night that she had given up on her life, when I had been unable to save her from her fae tormentors. She always had some hope, anger or intensely focused thoughts as she acted on a plan of action, but not tonight. Tonight her despair took hold of something in my chest and squeezed.

I quickly identified her location. She was just north of New Orleans, on Route 10. I had passed this area many times on my way to New Orleans; it was mainly swampland. It made sense, this is the stretch of highway she should be on if she left Bon Temps around 2:00 AM.

Her terror mounted.

Futilely I looked outside, ready to leap to her aid, but my body had already told me that it was too late to leave the house and I knew that even if I did, I could not reach her in time to help her at this distance. Where the fuck were her guards? This must be a premeditated attack to strike at her when there was no way I could get to her to help, but surely her guards would come to her aid at any moment. I waited a second, but her fear and despair continued to grow; they were not helping her. I had to do something, but first I needed to know more about what was going on, so I directed all my attention through the bond to identify exactly what was happening.

As I focused, her emotions became clearer and I could sense her actions. My mind filled in the holes and soon I had a picture of what was happening to my bonded.

The pictures brought me to my knees.

My Sookie was crashing through a swampland, tripping over roots and stumbling into holes. She was running from something or someone that absolutely terrified her, but also to someplace that she perceived as safe…trying desperately to get to that safe place. I could not fully understand this detail and then was distracted from it as she was hit from behind and slammed to the ground, face first. Pain shot through her back, knees and neck and then an even greater pain began to build through her chest as she fought for breath.

She was being suffocated or strangled and was completely unable to breathe!

_No! Please_, I reflexively begged the gods I had forsaken so long ago. _Please do not allow this to happen! _I had never begged before, not even for my own life, but now I lifted up my request to every god I had ever heard of, hoping that one would hear me and help her. Of course there was no immediate answer, and all I could sense was the excruciating pain and fear flooding my bonded.

I forced myself further into the bond than I had ever gone, leaving my body behind. I had tried to do this when she was taken by the fae, but had been unable to make the connection with her, I had surmised that my failure had been due to the silver that was restraining me and sapping my strength and muting the magic that animated my body and mind. I ached with the hope that I could get through to her this time, as her peril was now even more acute than it was that horrific night.

I knew instinctually that entering the bond so far was extremely dangerous and would be fatal if the connection was lost with me inside, but I had to help her. I pushed and pushed, focusing on her emotions and her pain until I was right in her mind. The bittersweet torture of being with her so intimately threatened to incapacitate me, when the terror of losing her was so intensely real.

I forced myself to act._ Fight Sookie!_ I roared. She knew I was there and I felt her connecting with me. What she sent me filled me with impotent rage…she was sending her love and regrets for our lost bond and future. _Sookie! Stop this! Fight! You will fight_! I tried to order her as I would Pam, but it was ineffective, she was unable to comply. The force restraining her was too strong and she was already much too weakened to act.

This could not be happening. I had everything worked out, our future was secure, and she was supposed to be safe. What was happening to her and why? Why was someone taking her life? My fears had been for her freedom and general well being, not for her life. She was too valuable and unique to destroy; everyone knew that…almost everyone. Who would wish to destroy her?

That couldn't matter right now. What mattered was thwarting this attempt on her life. I sent her all my strength, all my courage and my overwhelming desire and need for her to live, but what I felt from her terrified me. Resignation. She was resigned to dying and to losing me. _NO_, I growled, _Don't you dare give up_! But I was losing her, she was slipping away from me. Her thoughts were becoming unclear and her strength was waning. _Please, Sookie, please don't let go…stay with me…please..._

I had felt so many people die in my arms, sensed their life force slowly fading away to nothingness, I had even felt my own death, but all of those were nothing compared to feeling my bonded slowly slipping away from me. I had never been so helpless, so weak, so mad with anguish.

I cried out in my grief and held tighter to her within the bond trying to force her to stay with me until I felt her nudging me to leave. She sensed that it was dangerous for me to be here with her and in the last moments of her life, _she_ was protecting _me_. Shame and despair engulfed me and I held on even tighter. I had not protected her but I would not leave her to die alone at the violent hands of a faceless monster. I would stay with her as long as I could.

I felt her weakness, her pain and I knew that she was truly lost. I pushed my own anguish aside and I tried to comfort her, whispering words to convey the depth of my love and devotion to her. Those words I so rarely spoke to her, the ones that bared my soul and put my very life at her feet, giving her absolute power over my heart.

I told her of the mysteries of our bond, how to me, being bonded to her was literally the equivalent of her being a part of me, of my very soul. I told her how she would always be a part of me, of how I was forever changed from having her in my life, in my heart, in my blood.

I explained for the first time that the love I felt for her enriched our bond and so made it different than any other. That when I said she was mine, I was saying that she was my love, my heart, my hope, my joy, my...

_Please_…I felt her weak request…_go_, and she pushed at me again. It was her final effort; I felt her life coming to an end. With a roar of despair, I released her, leaving my heart with her, and as my awareness returned to my own body, I felt a tearing in my chest that radiated throughout my entire being as the bond was snapped. I howled in pain and loss.

She was gone.

When I awoke at sunset, I was flat on my stomach, just inside the locked door of my sleeping chamber with my phone held to my ear by my right hand. Cruelly, there was no momentary reprieve from my pain. I was acutely aware of the events that had occurred just before dawn. Her absence screamed at me with a profound silence and my body ached from the tearing of the bond.

I pushed myself up to sitting and leaned my back against the door as I looked at the phone. My last call had been to Sam at sunrise, I must have been trying to get some help for Sookie. I knew it had been to no avail.

I called Pam and she answered with a sluggish response, "What happened?" she managed. I told her in a few clipped words what had occurred. "Where?" she said, sounding more alert. I gave her the location and I heard her turn on the microwave as she told me she was on her way.

My child would join me, prepared for a battle that had been lost hours ago. I was grateful for her company and for her strength and skill if it was required, but I knew there would be no need.

I forced my body upright, changed my clothes, which were bloody for some reason, and unlocked the door to my office. I was dully surprised to see the state of the room. The antique desk was broken into two pieces with one half hanging out the back window. One column of my bookshelves was collapsed and books lay piled haphazardly on the floor. In the center of the room was a puddle of blood, which I determined with one sniff, was a combination of True Blood and my own blood. Given the small bits of bottle mixed with the congealed mess, I determined that I must have crushed the bottle in my fist, cutting myself in the process. Next to the stain were two areas on the hardwood floor where my fingers had raked through the wood fibers, causing ten half-inch deep scars. At the end of one scar was a hole the size of my fist, which went through the wood of the floor and well into the concrete beneath. I had no memory of creating this mess but surmised that it must have happened while I was deeply connected within the bond.

Looking further at the floor, I saw shallow scars in the wood showing how I had pulled my body to safety as the sun rose. For a brief moment I allowed myself to wallow in my misery and I thought that I would have deserved to meet the sun on the floor of my office as I had allowed Sookie to die on the floor of some isolated swamp.

Alone, she had been alone…scared, hurt and alone. I should have been with her. I should have sent someone in the car with her rather than having worthless Weres watching her from afar. I should have been honest with her about the dangers she was facing. I should have gone after her the minute I heard from Sam that he too thought she was in danger. I should have, but I hadn't. I hadn't done a thing to protect her, but make feeble gestures. Once again, I disgusted myself with my ineptitudes.

I kicked the desk that was hanging out of the wall and it flew into my backyard, shattering on impact. Without thinking, I raced around the room, destroying everything I touched, lamps, paintings, sculptures. My hand closed around a book and suddenly I came back to myself. Frantically, I dug through my books, ruthlessly tossing aside antique volumes until thankfully I found what I was looking for.

I flipped open the familiar Italian volume and quickly found the page I was searching for. My fingers traced the words and then I literally trembled as I ran a fingertip over my side note dated April 5, 2004. I had known the irony of my finding the words of my heart in a poem in which the love interest has such a tragic ending, especially given Sookie's mortality, but I had been sure at the time that I would never see her end. Once again I caressed the words, "_In quella parte del libro della mia memoria dinanzi alla quale poco si potrebbe leggere, si trova una rubrica la quale dice Incipit Vita Nova."_ A tear fell onto the page leaving a bright red spot just below the words. I placed the book open on the floor to allow the blood to dry, that was enough of a side note to punish myself with, I would never need any further words to help me remember the lessons of this day.

I chastised myself for my self-loathing and my momentary weakness, I was not a simpering fool who would take his own life, that is not who I am. Sookie would not be alive if I had died too and then the tiny part of her that lived within me would be gone as well. I could not allow that to happen. I would treasure any bit of her that I could.

So I would not mourn. No. I would determine exactly what had happened and then seek my revenge. I focused all my emotions on the thoughts of annihilating everyone who was even remotely involved in her death. The anticipation of a fight brought strength back into my body and mind.

I went to the kitchen and drank three cold True Bloods, wiped the signs of my momentary weakness from my face, grabbed my sword from it's locked safe in my closet and catapulted myself into the darkening sky just four minutes after sunset.

As I flew, I checked my voicemails. I had one message from Herveaux blathering on about some excuse involving his incompetent pack members, I ignored his words; I would deal with them later. I listened more intently to the three messages from Amelia, each more agitated than the last with her concern that Sookie had not arrived in New Orleans. I would wait to call her until later to have her help with a reconstruction.

The last message was from Sam and his voice confirmed what I already knew. "Eric," he sighed deeply, "I found the site, but I can't find her." His voice broke on the last word. I must have been able to pass on more information to him than I realized. He swallowed and continued, "It's…I don't see how she could have survived…and I can't find her," he repeated. There was a long silence. "I'll stay here to protect the site until you arrive."

The line clicked and my determination to focus on my anger faltered as the emptiness grew larger in my chest, sucking on my energy and power. She was gone.

This was my fault. I had realized after speaking to Sam last night that she was in fact involved in something dangerous, but I allowed myself to be distracted by solidifying my position and our security. If I had gone straight to her, stopped her on her way south, I could have her safe in my arms right now. My fingers flinched as they sought her warm skin, her soft hair, the feel of her blood pounding under her skin. My lips tingled as I remembered the contours of her beautiful body, the warmth of her mouth and the delectable flavor of her blood. My heart, which had been warm and full for the first time in a millennia from the moment of our first blood exchange…my heart, the space where our bond used to reside, was empty and ached with her absence.

I let myself fall through the air a little, seeking release from this pain before I refocused my attention on my destination.

I had planned never to have to face this day. I had hoped that with time, she would see reason and consent to being turned, but if not, I would have devised a situation in which I could turn her without receiving her wrath. I would have her for all time…I had been sure that it was possible to keep her.

What I had known would be impossible was adjusting to existence without her now that I had become accustomed to having her as a part of my life, as a part of my being, and so I had been determined to never let her go.

Of course I had never told her that. I had never told her much at all, and now she was gone and her death was due in part to my withholding information from her. My fault.

I tried not to think about that lost future, its denial gave me pain that I had not felt since having to leave my human family when I was turned. Instead, I forced myself to focus on my rage. It was always easier to allow my rage to overtake me…however, the pain would not relent.

I reached again for the bond, but fell off a cliff into nothingness…it was completely gone.

She was gone…Sam's words finally made their way through my shock, he had said that she was gone…but where? why? and how?

I called out to her in the hopeless night, _My lover, my bonded, my wife…where are you?_

A/N:

Sorry all, I had to do it.

_"In quella parte del libro della mia memoria dinanzi alla quale poco si potrebbe leggere, si trova una rubrica la quale dice Incipit Vita Nova."_

"In that book which is my memory,

On the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you,

Appear the words, 'Here begins a new life'."

-Dante Alighieri, Vita Nuova_ c. 1293_

I loved seeing the exchanges some if you are having, it's so much fun to get you talking and guessing. I especially appreciate you asking questions about the future and specific details. I often get caught up in the emotion and lose track of details, so it's good you keep me thinking (bet that's not hard to believe…angst much?).

I promise you that although Eric and Sookie's journey will be difficult and full of painful mistakes, they each will find their own form of happiness in the end (was that nebulous enough to keep you guessing?).

These two are headstrong, stubborn people who have thick scars that lead them to making poor and sometimes very difficult choices, but I believe that they have deep love as their foundation.

Let's hope it is strong enough to survive. ;)

The next two chapters are from Pam's point of view.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Hi all. I'm sorry for such a hard chapter 10, it had to happen for the story to play out the way I need it to. I've been home sick for three days so I had the chance to get Chapter 11 done early. I may still be able to get one out on Sunday, I'll have to see how the weekend goes.

I think I confused some of you with my note at the end of last chapter so I had added a long(er) A/N at the beginning of this chapter explaining my intent with the story including a clearer guarantee for the ending and an explanation as to my reasoning for the choices I'm making as I write it, just to give those of you who struggle with angst a little support and hope. Then I thought that it might ruin the 'fun' for some people who didn't want to have any clues as to where this is going (although it won't give much away in terms of actual plot details). So I'll give you the choice. If you want a little insight into the story, PM me and I'll send it to you. If, like me, you like screaming out in frustration at the end of a chapter, wanting to know more...don't.

While I'm potentially sharing story insights, I should let you all know that there will be a torture scene (no rape, man do I hate being surprised by that, and very little blood) somewhere in the twenties lasting at least one if not two chapters (I'll warn you again closer to time), oh and a small one pretty soon too, but it hardly counts (well to the person being tortured it counts but not to me and probably not to you since you are reading a fic that's rated M). Just a warning...'cause Eric's going to get his revenge...but of course, things are never as easy as they seem (at least not in my twisted imagination).

and now...Pam's story...I really like her.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Chapter 11

My child...My maker

PPOV

I was satisfied...finally. Satisfied in every way. I'm sure I looked like a kitten fat on cow's milk, flat on my back in my bed at the safe house I had taken my Miriam to when I received Eric's call telling me I could make her my child. I had never made a child before, but I knew how to do it and I was sure it had worked…I could feel the magic. It had been so easy; my poor Miriam was so weak already.

I hadn't expected her tears at the end since this is what she wanted and she knew what I was doing, but I guess it was just her body's way of giving one last fight to live. I would have to ask Eric if that was the norm. Still, I got to enjoy almost all of her before giving her my blood, another thing I had never done before. Now I finally understood why Eric was so into giving Sookie his blood, it was incredible...feeling the person I care for sucking the magic carried within my blood from my body. I'd never felt anything like it before. Plus, it had been a long time since I drained a human without being in a rush or disliking the human intensely. Oh, how I missed the feeling of completion. Drinking without draining was like sex without orgasm. It was better than nothing, but that's just about it.

There was a moment, when she actively began sucking my blood that I felt a small part of myself being transferred into her. I didn't feel a loss from the shift, instead it was almost as though I had gained another level of awareness and what was our bond, a weaker bond than what Eric and Sookie have but still a bond, became a permanent connection. I sighed in relief as I felt it take root and grow as she strengthened and then faded away again to a dull hum as she entered her temporary death.

Now my Miriam would rest for three days and then she would rise as my child. I basked in those words, 'my child'. I knew that I would be a good maker. Fair, but strong for my child. My Miriam.

I thought back to the first time I saw Miriam. She had been a contestant on my favorite television show, Project Runway. I was enthralled by her classic style, impeccable workmanship and perky little body. Plus she was a genius with my favorite materials and didn't tolerate disrespect from anyone. I was instantly drawn to her whole package.

The week she was eliminated from the show, the challenge was to create an outfit for a vampire to wear to a social outing. She created a beautiful mauve chiffon blouse paired with luscious grey tweed pants with slight mauve accents that cupped her model's ass perfectly. Heidi Klum had loved her design and said that if she were a vampire, she would wear the outfit, no duh.

To my horror, Michael Kors, Nina Garcia and the guest judge Paris Hilton (who some decade old idiot had turned after a drug induced driving accident) tore Miriam another asshole for her perception that vampires would ever want to be caught dead wearing mauve. Heidi had been furious, but Paris, dressed in black leather and lace, got her way by claiming that she was the authority. Please...we all know what the only thing that Paris Hilton could be considered an authority on is, and it most certainly isn't clothing.

I contacted Miriam through the show and told her I would pay her top dollar for the outfit she had designed in my size and I had it within two weeks. I also used Eric's influence to get a ticket to the finale of the show and wore my favorite designers ensemble. Miriam and I hit it off right away and I offered to set her up in a studio in Shreveport and give her funds to start her own line (of course the catch was that I would get first pick of her designs). I became her muse and within a few weeks, I had a full closet and a new lover. I admired and enjoyed her more than any lover I'd had before and so I began to think about keeping her. Surely her talent should not go to waste.

Our timeline for her turning was compressed due to her illness, and then thrown to a complete halt by Victor and Felipe. But here I was, despite the odds and thanks to my maker who I had only a few hours earlier verbally berated for his continued hope of finding a way out of our situation, basking in the warm comfort of my lover's blood and in the knowledge that she would rise as my child.

I chose to keep her at the safe house rather than burying her due to the difficult position we were in between Victor and Felipe. Even though I had received approval from my new Queen and renounced my loyalty to Felipe, there still might be reprisals especially since I had not been able to leave the area, so I had to be able to move her easily if the need arose. Plus Eric had dug me up after my family buried me and it had certainly helped speed up my acceptance to this new life not to have to dig my way out of a coffin.

Now that Eric had made his strategic move with Oklahoma, many of the stressful thoughts that had been plaguing us for so long had finally faded into the background and were replaced with pleasure and pure satisfaction. We had both done well. Miriam would be glorious and Sookie would return to Eric and be kept safe as he took his rightful place as King of Louisiana. It should go smoothly, Freyda was vicious in a fight and always had strong supporters, that is why Elisobeth had wanted Eric for Freyda, they were so alike and Elisobeth knew that Eric would keep her treasured child safe.

Eric was smart to tempt Elisobeth with the option of giving Freyda two contractually bound defenders, Eric and another through marriage, with the unlikely possibility of a third. I didn't think either of them would anticipate that Eric would marry a vampire, but he had many old friends and the security that Sookie's telepathy would give any allied kingdom. It would work out, Eric had been right, but he took too big of a risk with Sookie for my comfort.

I settled back next to my…child and waited for dawn to pull me under. I smiled as I thought of Immanuel staying in the house with us, of course outside of our secure room, to keep an eye out for trouble during the day. Granted, he was only a human, but he was a scrappy and tough human and I felt at ease with the added security.

As I began to weaken with the dawn, I felt a terrible sense of fear and anxiety eat into my pleasure. It took me a moment to realize that I was not in danger, it was Eric I was feeling. I had never felt his emotions like this, my body shook with the intensity. The fear that was overflowing into me from him trickled into rage, grief, guilt, loss and suddenly a violent pain ripped though his chest and to a lesser extent, mine.

"NO!" I gasped, "Eric!" he could not be ended! Is this how it felt when a maker was lost? No. Please. No matter how much we had irritated one another this past month, I loved him deeply. I needed him.

I called out to him, child to maker, it was all I could do, and as I slipped into oblivion, I could feel his presence whispering in my thought stream.

He was alive! Wounded somehow…but alive.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

I awoke moments before sunset as my phone rang. I forced my body to move to answer my maker. "What happened?" I managed to force out through my unresponsive lips.

"Sookie's dead, murdered," he said with a hollow voice. I had momentarily thought that the pain I had felt in his chest was him being staked, but that was how it feels when a bonded dies. It must be much more intense when a maker is ended, but this was more than enough, I could still feel the pain radiating through his chest. Eric would be vulnerable right now, he would need my help and protection.

"Where?" I asked, feeling more like myself as I jumped up and made my way to the kitchenette in the safe room, got myself two true bloods and popped them in the microwave.

"North of New Orleans in the swamplands, just follow me in." I could hear him dressing, I would need to leave immediately. This would be a perfect opportunity for an ambush. I threw the clothes I always had placed aside for an emergency, flexible jeans, a tight sweater shirt, good fighting boots, and my fitted jacket that housed my favorite iron dagger, latex gloves and a silver chain. I pulled my hair back, grabbed my pistol that I had purchased after Sookie taught me how to shoot her rifle, gave a quick look at my Miriam and rushed out of the room. The pistol was loaded with silver bullets and I would enjoy using it to revenge my friend.

The door swung shut, locking behind me and I tore up the stairs to find Immanuel reading a magazine in the living room. He blinked as I appeared.

"Immanuel, keep guard. Do not open the door for any reason. I must help my master." I said to him with haste.

"Wait! What if she rises? Do you really need to go?" He questioned, looking very worried.

"Yes, he needs me. His Sookie was murdered; this might be the beginning of a war. If I don't return, have many warm bottles of true blood available and use these on her if she turns on you." I threw a bag at him that contained silver jewelry I had purged from Miriam's wardrobe.

I left my resting child in the care of her human brother. I had to help Eric. I ignored my Nissan Murano and jumped into my newly purchased Audi TTS Roadster that I had never pushed to its limits. After Sookie and I had our run in with Bruno and Corinna, I realized that I needed a more road worthy vehicle and so had found the TTS.

In the early evening hours, I pressed the car, weaving smoothly though rush hour traffic, but even the beautiful purr of the engine wasn't enough to block out Eric's suffering. In one horrible moment, I had a flash from him as he thought of meeting the sun. I was shocked, he had never had this thought in all the time I had been with him. It was completely out of his nature to think that way.

The magic that connected us, ensured that maker and child knew when the other had this thought, it was one of our safety mechanisms, and had saved many from a premature end. I would be on the alert, although I was sure that this was just a momentary lapse of reason due to his loss. He would never take that step; he was too strong.

I knew the best I could do for my maker now was to get him answers, and fast, so I called Amelia. She answered, sounding on the edge of hysteria. "Pam, did you find her? Is she OK? I'm so worried. Something feels really wrong."

Amelia always had a keen sense for when Sookie was in trouble; she had been quite helpful while living with Sookie by letting us know things that Sookie was involved in that Sookie herself would never have told Eric.

"Amelia," I said firmly, "breathe." I paused for her to take a breath before delivering the blow. "No, Amelia. She has not been found. Eric felt the bond break just before dawn and is sure she was killed."

Amelia wailed and blubbered. I had expected this, but still, I hated emotional exhibits. I just didn't know how to handle them. I couldn't bear most of my own emotions and tried to control them ruthlessly, so I didn't like to be burdened by anyone else's. It was easier before the revelation when I related mainly with vampires. I rarely got close enough to humans to care anything for them when they died…as they always did. Now I was reminded as to why being separate from them was a good thing.

"Amelia," I said sternly, "we will need your help. We must find out what happened, who did this."

She began to master herself and think logically. "Of course," she made a loud, wet and disgusting snuffing noise, ugh, humans were so gross. I was so relieved my Miriam would be vampire in a few days. "Bob is here and I can get a bunch of witches together. Should we go to Bon Temps?"

"No, she was just north of New Orleans. I'll give you exact directions when I get there. I'm on my way now. We will need you tonight, you understand. This has the potential to get out of hand quickly when the word spreads. We need information before that happens." I didn't need to explain the dangers inherent in repercussions from Sookie's death, Amelia had been around first hand for fae, vampire and Were dealings.

"Yes, of course, I'll try to leave in an hour or so, I have a strong coven now. They'll help me for sure," she said, sounding more like the overconfident little witch I knew her to be.

"I'll be in touch, my friend. I'm sorry to bring you this news," I said. I wasn't being polite, I rarely was. I was serious. I was fond of Amelia in many ways, and I did not like causing her pain.

"Thanks Pam. Oh…how's Eric?"

She sounded as though she were checking out the safety of the situation rather than really wanting to know about his well-being. Smart girl. "NOT good," I said in a gross understatement, "but he will not be a danger to you or yours, he knows you will be there to help. I would recommend that you not try to touch or talk to him at all. Keep your distance," I warned.

I would be following the same strategy to keep my own limbs intact. His emotions were all over the place. One minute I was bowled over with grief and the next my body shook with his rage and hatred.

I didn't have the faintest clue as to what to expect from him...and that scared me.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Impressions

PPOV

I sped through the woods and then slammed on the breaks as two cars appeared around a bend. One was Sookie's, the other belonged to Sookie's shifter boss, Sam Merlotte. He was leaning against his car. His whole body told a story of grief and loss. I sent a text to Amelia, detailing our location and then stepped out of the car. I acknowledged Sam with a nod. He stared at me blankly and then tipped his head in the direction of the woods, as though I could not feel my maker's presence. Shifters. They were almost as clueless as humans.

I turned and left him behind. I had been right to wear hiking boots, the terrain was uneven and wet and would make my responses sluggish if I had on other shoes. I would be ready for anything.

I could already smell Sookie's scent tinged with fear. The sharp smell of her adrenaline increased about 100 meters into the swamp, and I could see evidence in the mud that her trajectory began to falter as her feet slipped and her hands caught her as she fell.

I followed her path and I was hit with a wave of hunger and desire as the wind blew the scent of her blood in my direction. My fangs ran out and my mouth watered even though the blood was clearly hours old and mostly dried.

I was not ashamed at being enticed by my dead friend's blood, my reaction was natural, and her scent was delicious, as it always was. I considered my reaction to be my way of showing her respect similar to the way humans did when they wore black and sad expressions at funerals.

I used my heightened arousal defensively; I removed the pistol from the back of my waistband and held it at the ready, but all I could sense was Eric and he was not expecting a fight. In fact, he was completely focused on something, so I would keep watch. I continued walking silently until I came into a small clearing. Here the scent of her blood was nearly overpowering, it took me a few seconds of concerted effort to acclimatize to the scent before I moved closer.

Eric was floating above a patch of mud with his face inches from the ground. As I moved closer, I realized that there was a clear impression of a body in the mud, from the smell, Sookie's body. There were a few of her hairs present, and a large bloodstain where the neck of the impression was located. I regretted the waste of all that delicious blood. I had only enjoyed a few small sips, but even tainted with poison, it was more sublime than anything I had ever tasted, never having experienced the flavor a full fae myself.

The impression that Eric was studying was clearly of her left hand. Both hands had left raking impressions in the dirt, but the left hand had Eric's attention. He lowered himself even closer to the ground as he smelled the dirt of the impression without touching it to preserve the scent. I wondered if he had found a scent that would tell us who had killed her. He lowered the tip of his sword and pried up a flat rock that had been stained with blood, he then reached down and plucked it out of the ground and landed 20 feet to the side, staring at and smelling the rock repeatedly.

As I watched him, Sam came out of the woods and stood by me. Eric turned to us with a fanatical look in his eyes. "Smell this," he demanded holding the rock out to us carefully balanced in the palm of his hand. We moved forward and I smelled it, Merlot did the same and then we both stepped back, keeping our distance from Eric.

He looked at us with expectation in his eyes.

"It smells like Sookie," I said and Sam nodded in agreement.

Eric growled and shook his head, "You are not being thorough enough. Smell the undertones, not the general scent." He shoved the rock back toward us expectantly.

We tried again and this time I was able to detect a slight something hidden deep within the scent. It was almost like a hint of spice. Sam just shook his head and removed his clothes to shift. He took the form of a bloodhound. He was actually cute, all of those wrinkles begged to be grabbed and rubbed. "Focus, Pam." Eric demanded. He knew I was an animal lover. If they came without fur and teeth, I would have one.

The bloodhound moved forward and Eric lowered the rock. Sam took his time sniffing, before he sat back and whimpered. Eric groaned in frustration, he was just barely holding himself together, Sam had better keep his distance. Eric licked his finger and rubbed it on the rock, wetting the dried blood and then held out his bloody finger for Sam. The bloodhound sniffed a few times and then moved back and sneezed before turning back to his human form. What a shame. As he was dressing again, I also smelled the blood on Eric's finger.

The scent was much more powerful now. I actually felt it in my nasal passages, almost like a feeling I remember from when I was human of smelling an especially fragrant flower but getting too much pollen. "It tickles my nose," I could understand why the Sam had sneezed.

Sam finished dressing and said, "It's like getting your nose too close to a carbonated beverage. It's as though the atoms of the blood are in fast motion, popping around, almost dynamic or…alive somehow."

Eric gave a ferocious grin, not remotely a smile and nodded his head, "Exactly. That is not Sookie. There is the scent of Sookie's blood present everywhere," he ground his teeth together and I felt grief pour through him again, "but this scent stands out right here." He turned and pointed at the impression of her left hand. "She must have scratched her attacker and drawn blood, leaving this trace scent behind."

He looked back down at the rock and at his hand, smelled the blood on his finger again and then held it out to us once more. When we had both caught the scent again, now that we knew what we were looking for, he looked at the finger and then cleaned it off with his tongue. He closed his eyes, I could feel his pain and his wonder at the flavor of the blood. "I taste Sookie, but this blood is even more unique, it…pops on my tongue…I can actually feel it tingling…" he traced his fingers down his throat to his chest and looked thoughtful before shaking his head.

"Do you have a clean cloth or bag?" he asked us.

I shook my head, but the shifter replied, "Yes, in my car. I'll get it."

He left us to get Eric a receptacle for the rock. Eric began to pace around the site, looking for any clues, any scent he could find.

I quietly informed him that Amelia would be here shortly with her coven to do an ectoplasmic reconstruction. He just nodded, but I could feel his appreciation for handling that detail. He grimaced and said, "I need to call Freyda." He turned and paced off, pulling out his phone. I wondered what he would do. He was free now to marry Freyda, would he finally relent and take this good step that would get him away from Felipe and Victor? Or would he continue down the path of aligning with her and overthrowing Felipe. I knew he loved a fight, and would be doubly wanting one now, but he was smart enough to know when to jump from a sinking ship. My maker was nobody's fool. Whatever he chose, I hoped it would give him a much needed break.

After a few minutes, Eric returned to the clearing looking almost satisfied and he had the energy of battle coursing through him. Good. That had to be good, right? It was pretty clear which pathway he had selected to follow.

He returned to his determined scouring of the area as I waited patiently. About 10 minutes later, we heard many sets of feet making their way through the swamp. The witches were here. Eric looked up, his face was expressionless, but his emotions were filled with hesitant anticipation, this is something he needed, but did not want to see.

The witches arrived, carrying flashlights and led by Sam. Amelia walked near the rear of the group, supported by a skinny black-haired guy, that I assumed was Bob from her descriptions. I liked him better as a cat, but I was glad she had someone with her.

Two extremely powerful black witches led the group into the clearing and began providing the others with directions. They were clearly in charge of the coven. It appeared that Amelia would not be involved as the woman directed her to sit at the base of a tree near me. I moved closer to her to offer her whatever support I could and she wrapped an arm around my calf.

"How large an area do we need to include and what is the timeframe?" The male asked Eric.

Eric stared at the witch for a few tense moments before saying, "From just beyond her car to this clearing. Begin today at 5:30am."

The witch nodded and directed five of his group to stand along the path Sookie had traveled. He asked Sam to point it out to them and meet at the street. When the witches began chanting, Eric, Amelia and I joined Sam at the roadside. We all waited for something to happen and finally a spectral car driven by Sookie appeared and pulled to the side of the road.

I could feel Eric's longing and saw him clench his teeth and fists as he fought the urge to go to this false-Sookie. The image of my friend appeared very distressed as she threw the car into park, slappped open the door and began to run toward the side of the road and the swamp, all the time, looking over her shoulder. Suddenly she stopped, looking at the road from the direction that she had come. Her expression was non-pulsed and yet relieved at the same time. Sam spoke loud enough for Eric and I to hear, "Alcide Herveaux and others of his pack were here, when I arrived. They and the guards car were stopped right around that corner by a force field of some kind. They were all blocked from getting out of their cars until I opened the door for them. It was powerful magic."

Eric didn't take his eyes off Sookie, but growled menacingly at Sam effectively shutting him up.

Sookie slowly relaxed and she leaned on a nearby tree and she appeared to be taking a few deep breaths. She crossed one arm around her chest and held her forehead supported in the other hand, covering her eyes. Her shoulder continued to rise and fall steadily so it appeared she was calming herself rather than crying. She had obviously been terribly stressed by the pursuit of her guard, I wondered what they had been thinking that upset her so and potentially put her in this deadly situation. I could feel Eric's guilt growing as he surmised that she had been chased to this place by the Weres as well.

She stood upright, took another deep breath and stepped away from the tree. She took a few more uncertain steps further away from the road into the swamp and appeared to be looking for something. When her vision fixed on something, she stopped and her breathing hastened and her whole body began to tremble. Had she heard something? Seen something? I nearly growled with frustration that I could not determine the cause of her actions and I knew Eric was going crazy. She turned to look north back up the road with a desperate expression, closed her eyes and after a moment she mouthed something and then turned back to the swamp.

Sam, who was facing her whispered, "I think she said, 'I'm so sorry'." I knew he was right. She's sorry? What the fuck? She turned back to the forest, squared her shoulders and took a few determined steps before she broke into a jog. We all followed her, Eric keeping the closest, hovering next to her, watching every expression for a source of any clue. She was fearful and alert constantly scanning around her environment for danger. She knew that she was walking into danger, had come to this exact spot for a reason. What the fuck was she doing?

Without warning, Sookie leapt in fear and stumbled, looking over her shoulder in terror. She shook her head, appeared to scream and took off in a faster, more erratic run, stumbling over roots and crashing into branches. She kept looking back as she ran, clearly the source of the threat was behind her, but it was invisible to us.

As she entered the clearing, a force struck her from behind, throwing her forward onto the ground. She tried to get up but the force hit her again and pinned her down. Her legs and arms flailed and kicked uselessly and then her left hand began to scratch and pull at something on her face. From the look in her eyes, it was clear that she was being suffocated. At one point, her intense expression of fear was replaced with sadness and regret and then she began to fade. The hand that had been scratching at the force on her face tore at the ground as her body spasmed as it sought oxygen. Eric had been right, she must have transferred her attackers blood at that moment. Her body stilled just before the light faded from her eyes and she disappeared.

We all stood still in shock of the violence of her attack. Yes even I was disturbed with watching my friend's death. She had been so good and kind, so brave and unique. Why would anyone seek to destroy her like this? It appeared meaningless. Less than two seconds later, blood began to flow from midair about four inches from the ground and saturated the muddy soil. Her killer had clearly decided to ensure that the job was done well by slitting her throat.

Two things happened at that moment, Amelia turned and vomited and the rage in Eric reached new proportions. He was incensed not just that his bonded had been murdered but the fact that they had defiled her body after killing her set fire to his anger, taking him to uncharted levels of fury. I could see his body shaking from the effort he was making to restrain himself from attacking anything that moved.

When it was clear that we would gain no more information from the reconstruction, Eric turned and sped into the swamp. From a distance, we could hear and feel the ground shaking as tree after tree was torn down and decimated.

The power of his emotions was raging though me with an intensity that mimicked a violent thunderstorm. I didn't like it and wished for silence from his pain, I was dismayed to find that I had more than enough of my own. I walked away from the group to find some privacy to mourn for my lost friend and for my maker's grief.

After a few minutes, I returned to the clearing to find the witches murmuring among themselves. I interrupted them, "Why was the reconstruction incomplete? Why could we not see her attacker?"

They looked at one another and then the male leader spoke, "During an ectoplasmic reconstruction we are able to recall the life force which resides within living beings. We could see items she touched because, for that moment, her life force traveled into that particular item. Just as we could see her blood, moments after her death, it still carried her life force."

"Why could we see her blood after she died, but not her body?"

"I don't know, typically the blood and body fade at the same moment. It may have been the manner of her death. I have only done reconstructions where the death involved blood from a knife or gun. In this case, her blood was contained until just after her death and then released. It may have retained some of her life force." He said with a shrug and turned to his coven, "Any other suggestions?"

They all shook their heads except for Amelia who said quietly, "I think that it may have had something to do with her being part fairy or having so much of Eric's blood in her system. She was so different from anyone else that we can't make any real assumptions."

There was a rumble around the group as Amelia told everyone of Sookie's fae heritage. Way to go Amelia, but I guess there was no reason to protect that secret anymore. All of the witches apparently knew about the fae, but had not met one. I could see their imaginations creating far-fetched explanations based on this now.

"So using your explanation," I said firmly to the male coven leader, "we could not see the attacker because he or she either did not have a life force or could hide it and could block hers from affecting them. Correct?"

He nodded.

"Do vampires show up in reconstructions?" I asked, not having seen one for myself.

"Yes, vampires have a strong life force. It is different from that of humans, but it is present."

That made me feel better for some reason. I wonder if I still had a life force while asleep for the day? I would have to assume so, since we could be wakened with effort as when Sookie woke Eric in Rhodes.

"Can a powerful witch block a reconstruction, or hide themselves magically?"

"I imagine that it is possible although I have never heard how, but I am guessing that this is what occurred here. It would take more power than that of any witch I have ever met, but it is the most reasonable assumption."

"Explain," Eric growled as he emerged from the woods. His face was lined with bloody tear tracks and his clothes were ripped and filthy. The witches collectively shied away from him and I realized that to their eyes, he appeared ferocious and extremely dangerous. To my eyes he looked pitiful, but I carefully blocked that emotion from him.

"If she had been attacked by a being without a life force, we would have seen that being brought at least partially into focus when it touched her. Just as we saw the car and trees appear as she touched them." Again he shrugged, "It's just a guess, I have no proof."

I could see and feel Eric's intense focus as he carefully screened his knowledge of all beings known to have enough magic. He gave a shallow nod and his jaw clenched tightly again. We would speak no more about this in our present company.

I too contemplated many things including all I knew about Sookie. I concluded that my friend had indeed been up to something. What that something was…now there's the real question. Things were not lining up for me with the girl I knew. But those thoughts could wait for another time.

I thanked the witches, accepted Amelia's hug and passed her back to Bob. He helped her make her way out of the clearing with the rest of her coven. I would call her in a few days to ensure that she was thriving again.

Eric silently encouraged me to go back to my Miriam while he stayed at the clearing with Sam.

I looked at them, two grieving men who had loved the same woman. They would have to make plans for involving the human authorities and develop damage control for dealing with the fae, Felipe, Victor, Sookie's brother and the Weres.

He would need my help.

I did not leave him.

Eric wanted me to go, he didn't want me to witness his grief and pain but I knew that he was also trying to protect me from what he had to do next. It didn't matter where I was, I would feel his torment whether I was here or not, it was the curse of our bond and I would not let him face the next few hours alone.

Sam had called the authorities, they would be coming along with a contingent from Bon Temps, including Jason, the Sherriff and the detective, Belefleur. Alcede Herveaux and his enforcer had wanted to come back, but I knew that Eric would rip any Were he saw into pieces, it didn't matter what the cause of their failure was, they were responsible for her and they had failed. Sam told them to stay away until things had cooled down. Eric would seek them out when he was ready.

Eric took one last look at Sookie's imprint before pulling out his phone and pressing one key, regret rolling thick through the bond.

"Yes?" a quiet voice answered. As always, I could hear the conversation clearly.

"I have a message for Niall Brigant from Eric Northman."

"Go on."

"Tell him his great granddaughter, Sookie Stackhouse was murdered this morning. Magic was involved." Eric flinched as he said the words.

"I will tell him," and the call was disconnected.

Fucking fairies.

There was no way Eric could avoid alerting Niall, he had to be told and quickly. He would want to see the site of her death while it was still somewhat fresh.

Eric had barely placed his phone in his pocket before it rang, he answered and the same passive voice spoke. "He is coming, tell me where you are."

Eric described our location and he hung up again.

Two minutes later, Brigant appeared, walking out of the trees. He was not glamoured and was glowing brightly; his scent called to me as he had not taken the time to mask it. I nearly lost control but Eric looked at me sharply, "Lock yourself down Pam." I had no choice but to comply. I tightened my muscles and waited patiently to be released, I could not act, but his blood still called to me. I was grateful for Eric's order, I didn't know how he was able to control himself, I could feel the desire raging through him.

Niall stood for a moment, looking at what was left of his great granddaughter and then dove at Eric. My maker was caught off guard and the enraged fairy threw him through the trees. They landed hard and I felt some of Eric's bones break in his shoulder and ribs. I was devastated. I had come here to help him and now I was powerless to do anything due to Eric's own command, and then suddenly I picked up triumph and glee from Eric. This was exactly what he needed. I felt him unleash his rage as he threw down his sword and lunged at Niall, roaring and using all his deadly skills and pent up passion. Niall was fast and magical, popping from place to place to avoid Eric's strikes, but Eric finally made contact and they flew through the trees again, tumbling and crashing as they went. They were evenly matched when the fairy did not use his magic and Eric neglected his sword.

Eventually I saw the fairy's determination begin to fade, this was Eric's chance, but he did not strike, instead they both stopped their attacks, nodded slightly at one another and returned to the site. I realized that the fairy must have been using this fight exactly as Eric was, as an outlet for his grief and anger.

Niall knelt by the side of the impression that Sookie's body had made in the earth and Eric allowed him two minutes of privacy to grieve before he stepped forward.

Sookie's great-grandfather stood and blinked a tear from his eye.

"Where is the body?" he asked.

Eric didn't answer him, I knew that same question was haunting him and causing him intense pain.

Sam stepped forward, I never thought I would be happy to hear him speak, "Eric called me when he felt the bond break and told me where she was. This is exactly what I found when I arrived about three hours later. I haven't been able to find a trace of her scent anywhere."

Niall nodded and turned back to Eric.

"You said there was a magical influence, explain this," he said as he looked over the impression of Sookie's body.

"The witches did an ectoplasmic reconstruction, you are familiar with this?" Niall nodded and motioned for Eric to continue. "Her attacker was invisible even when clearly touching her. I had guards following her as she drove south, they were magically detained until Sam arrived."

"Tell me exactly what you saw, leaving out no detail," he demanded.

Eric recounted what he had seen and then looked at Sam and I to encourage us to add our point of view where it differed from his.

"I also found this scent, it is unlike any I have smelled before." He removed the rock from his pocket and unwrapped it from the cloth Sam had provided and offered it to him. "Smell it only, do not touch," Eric directed Niall.

The fairy leaned in, took in a short breath and stood back up, his face a mask of hatred and shock, "Scrios," he swore. He pulled out his phone and began speaking in the original fae language that I recognized but did not understand. It had some familiarity with Gaelic so I could catch a few words. Scrios, meant destroy, but I heard sgriosadair also which meant destroyer. I was mostly familiar with words associated with war since those were the ones I had heard Eric speak most frequently. Niall was agitated and was clearly familiar with this scent and very unhappy to find it here.

Eric was losing what little patience he had, he stepped toward Niall again and took his phone from his hand, hung it up and placed it in Niall's pocket, using all his restraint not to crush it in his fingers.

"Explain," Eric demanded.

Niall's face transitioned through many emotions as he looked at Eric debating what to tell him. Eric finally snapped, he threw the fairy to the ground, pulled out his sword and placed it against Niall's neck allowing it to touch his skin. It was an iron sword and he paled as it parted his flesh a little. Eric threatened him in a deep Gaelic growl. My maker was incredible, he could rule and control anyone he wanted when he tried, with the exception of one small blond mostly human girl. The fairy looked him straight in the eye, seemed to decide something and nodded carefully.

Eric removed the blade and pulled him upright.

Niall straightened his tunic before giving Eric the details of the Scrios, but Sam and I were left in the dark. I didn't catch more than a few Gaelic words here and there as obviously was Niall's intent. Fairies were notoriously unwilling to discuss their secrets, and this appeared to be a big one. Whatever was being said, it simultaneously intrigued and worried Eric. I would have to wait until later for him to explain it all to me.

Finally Eric switched to English. "What is your plan?" he asked.

"I intend to hunt for this Scrios and destroy it before it kills any more of my family. What do you intend to do vampire?"

"I will join you in your search once I have secured my position as King and can use the abilities of those sworn to me to assist us in the hunt."

"I wish you luck Eric Northman, husband of my great-granddaughter," he said as he nodded, took one more look at the impression in the mud and walked away into the woods.

A/N: Before you ask, Eric will be sharing Niall's information at the right time…I need to keep the details of our antagonist cloaked for a little longer.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Alone

S~

Day five- Friday

_Could you ever imagine looking at someone you love and knowing that they would be grieving your death in less than 24 hours. I couldn't either, but believe me, it is sublime torture. To look into their eyes, promise to see them tomorrow and know what you were choosing to do to them…how you would hurt them. I've never been lower, stooped lower as a person before than when I turned my back on my loved ones and walked away, leaving them no choice but to face the nightmare that I left behind._

_The only thing that might keep my soul from being sent straight to hell for the perfidy I had committed was that I was doing this to save two lives, maybe more. No God I believed in would punish me for trying to save a child's freedom and ultimately his life (and my own as well although I put a lower value on my life than his, an innocent child). I knew He wouldn't punish me…I would take care of that myself. I would never be able to forgive myself for this choice. I didn't deserve forgiveness, and since I was the only one who knew the whole truth, I held the power of forgiveness…and it would not be given._

_0-0-0-0-0-0-0_

Nothing. I feel nothing, my heart feels empty when I think of them. Waiting. I am waiting. I stood and watched as the waters of my life were drawn away from the shoreline, knowing that they were building into a tidal wave, aware that there was no escape. I am waiting for the tidal wave of grief to hit me and pull me under. I know I won't be able to put it off forever, so I keep waiting.

Maybe it's my intense fatigue that is holding off the reality of my losses. Maybe it's that I am still reigned with terror about what had happened to me in that swamp. Maybe it's my overwhelming fear that I was followed and will be found. Whatever the cause, my brain will not allow weakness such as all consuming grief to cloud its judgments yet. But I know. I know as surely as I know the sun will set that this grief will come. So I'm waiting.

For now, I'm breathing, although that takes tremendous effort…my body is so heavy, each small movement against gravity is a strain. I feel as though I have been drained of my life energy and desire. My world has lost all its color and all its meaning. Nothing has value to me anymore. What is left?

I analytically categorize each emotion that tries to make its way to the surface and put it in a locked vault to be dealt with later. I'll pay the deferred price. For now, I stare unseeing at the world passing me by, airports, airplanes, hotels, cabs, my new state, my temporary home.

When my chores are done, my doors and windows are locked and it's time to sleep, I lie in bed and stare at the wood beamed ceiling and wait…my heartbeat tells my story. Each beat echoes in the space where the bond used to reside. I hear the reverberations create a word and it pulses through my mind like a drumbeat and becomes my mantra…a-lone…a-lone…a-lone…this now defines me. This is who and what I am, an empty shell of who I used to be…a-lone.

I am lost, cut from the rope that anchored me to my reality, to my perception of my life and of who I was. When I cut the string that tied me to my world, I lost my identity, my comfort, my joy, my security. Who am I? No one. Nothing. I try to find myself, but it's as though I'm in a self-imposed sensory deprivation chamber. No sensations, no sounds, sights nor smells, no sense of touch, gravity or movement registers to orient myself. Nothing that matters anyway. But unlike a person placed in a chamber, I don't go crazy because I welcome the void, I prefer to be numb…and so…I wait...I wait, a-lone…a-lone…a-lone…

E~

"You will find the changes requested have been made and approved by Ms. Alvar and Her Majesty," Cataliades said as he passed me the contract.

I stared at the packet of papers on the table in front of me for a while, everything was taking me a little longer than usual. Eventually I flipped through the pages, forcing myself to attend to the details, this contract would bind me for one hundred years. When I called Freyda with my news about Sookie, she was adamant that Elisobeth would want to follow through with my suggestion of a coalition rather than the marriage for exactly the reasons I had anticipated. Freyda was ready to wage war on Felipe as soon as I signed the pages. The excellent news was that Elisobeth herself would be attending the battles, watching from nearby in case her child needed her. She did not wish to be involved, but would engage if needed. Her presence placed the odds distinctly in our favor although they would have been so anyway.

My eyes caught one change in the contract other than the word marriage being replaced by coalition and/or alliance.

'The aligned parties, Eric Northman and Freyda Ordway will maintain exclusive individual rights of blood and body.'

I acknowledged the change with silent relief. Although I generally trust and enjoy Freyda, I didn't want to be connected to her by blood. I had no problem with sex of course, especially now that…but I preferred it this way since we would not have to meet annually to consummate our alliance.

"It is acceptable," I told the lawyer.

He nodded and handed me a pen. I took it, envisioning that it was a dagger with which I would eviscerate de Castro and Victor, and signed my name in the appropriate places.

It was done. Now we could act.

Cataliades had other ideas. He cleared his throat, looking slightly uncomfortable, "I have one more matter to discuss with you." His voice paused as he took a protracted breath. "Miss. Stackhouse had me write up a will and you were mentioned, among others."

My head snapped up from the pages I had just signed. Sookie wrote a will? When?

"What is the date on the will?" I asked through clenched teeth. This had the potential to tell me a lot about what had happened to her and why she had made the choices that brought her to that place in the swamp.

"Just over a month ago," he answered, pulling some pages from his briefcase.

That would have been around the time that Appius was here. Had she sensed something was brewing? Maybe it was just after she and Pam were attacked by Bruno and Corinna? I was frustrated that I couldn't find any conclusions from the information at the moment.

"Did she explain why she felt a will was necessary?" I questioned the lawyer further.

He looked at me steadily, "She mentioned nothing specific, but with as dangerous as her life was, I would have encouraged nothing less."

His voice was even, but I detected slight bit of censure in his tone. Was he blaming me? Did he think I had not protected her enough? He had liked and admired her. He had mentioned his regard for her numerous times after Rhodes. I studied the demon before me and wondered if I had just made a new enemy.

He handed me the will and I read it over with tightly fisted hands. Something in my expression, which I kept completely controlled, told Cataliades that it was time to leave. He excused himself, pausing briefly for the standard niceties, but I did not respond. I only had so much strength.

'My true husband,' she had said. I felt the pain of grief threatening to escape and I lost all control. I ripped the pages of her will, demolished the table and laid waste to another room, welcoming the rage in the place of grief.

S~

Saturday Morning

I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up with the safety of daylight filtering through the windows. I was shocked awake because of a knife sharp pain wrenching through my stomach. I lurched up and somehow made it to the unfamiliar bathroom before I threw up. I was exhausted and my whole body was shaking. The tidal wave was coming…I knew I couldn't hold it back anymore.

Suddenly I was bowled over with the emotions I had been holding back for the past four days, I collapsed back on the bed and hugged the pillow as I sobbed and sobbed. The grief felt as though it was seeping out of my very cells, being wrung from my soul. I had no thoughts, just grief and pain.

When I came briefly to the surface, I could see each individual loss and I cried again for each and every one…Eric, Sam, Jason, my future nieces or nephews that I would never know, my home and my history…the list went on and on. I fell asleep sobbing like a child.

At some nebulous point in time, I woke again, but stayed in bed for a while, assessing my ability to get up and face part of the day. I slowly sat up and my head spun so I closed my eyes until the dizziness cleared and then I climbed out of bed. I felt hollow and weak in every possible way.

I walked toward the doors that opened to the deck, ignoring the warning bells ringing in my head that told me of the dangers everywhere outside this room, and slid open the door. Warm, fresh air whipped into the room and I took a deep breath. Nothing had ever felt more welcome than that glorious air. I stepped out onto the deck. It was covered and so was comfortable in the midday sun. I stood facing the water, closed my eyes, and raised my arms slightly from my sides, feeling the fresh breeze gently caress my tired body. In that moment, I felt as though a tiny spark of life was lit in my broken soul.

I sat in a deck chair and pulled my knees to my chest, resting my feet on the seat beneath me, and finally, I let myself think. Before this, I was just doing, surviving and then feeling. As I thought, my heart began to pound and goose bumps popped up all over my body. What are they doing now? The people I loved. I thought of who would go to the swamp. Surely Eric, Bill, Sam, and maybe Jason would want to go, Pam, Claude and Dermot too, although the fairies were the least definite of the bunch. Niall was behind the closed portal and so wouldn't even know what had happened unless Claude could write to him again. Amelia would be called to do an ectoplasmic reconstruction and maybe Octavia too. I knew how much that would take from them and yet I made this happen. I am so very cruel.

I counted the days, it was already Saturday, Eric would have gone to the site on Thursday night…two nights already. Two nights that he had woken up without me, without our bond. What was he doing? Was he all right? Did he believe it? Was he looking for me? Was he already married?

Surely by now, if they believed the scene that was set, everyone would have been made aware of the events that had occurred and that I was gone. I prayed, although I figured that I didn't deserve any more leniencies at this point, that my loved ones would be kind to one another and that they would not be too hurt by my actions.

Truthfully, my death shouldn't come as too big of a surprise to anyone given all of my close calls, so I figured that Jason, Amelia, Octavia and Tara would be fine in a few days. Sure, Jason would miss having family, but he had Michelle now and we hadn't been close for a long time, if ever really.

I didn't have to worry about Pam, Claude and Dermot, they would be more concerned about the reactions of others. It was Eric, Sam and Niall that I worried about. Sam and I had been developing our friendship more in the last few months than ever before. I truly loved having him in my life and I know he cared deeply for me.

Niall had left me, left this world to protect me and others like me. I know he wanted a relationship, but his position as prince demanded that he look at the big picture. What that was exactly, I didn't know, and I figured that I never would know. I couldn't even pretend to understand his motivations for things, the fae were so unpredictable and secretive, but they were family and I had yearned for family for as long as I could remember. His loss, the loss of ever having the hope that he might return was more of a blow than I had anticipated.

However, it was Eric, of course it was Eric, that I mourned the loss of most. I collapsed a little more in on myself as I thought of him. The feelings I received from him as he pushed himself into the bond wracked my soul. He would have stayed with me, given his life, as he had offered to do so time and time again in moments of crisis.

I understood now why Mr. Cataliades' associates had wanted to make the event so real, make me believe that I was truly facing my own death, that something had gone terribly wrong. Eric was right there with me and would have known it was a rouse otherwise. By making me believe that I was dying, there was no way Eric could sense anything else through the bond.

If I had ever doubted that he truly loved me, and I had more times than I should have, those last moments within the bond had clarified his feelings. He loved me deeply, loved me, wanted me, needed me, and now he was grieving me, thinking that he had failed me at the time I needed him the most. Tears rolled down my cheeks and dripped off my jaw. He had been frantic...desperate to find a way to help. I was so sad that he would carry that moment with him for the rest of his life.

I reviewed the last moments of our bond. I had been running in the swamp, following the comforting safety of the glowing orb of light that moved through the trees, lighting my path when I sensed something behind me and heard Victor's gleeful voice whisper my name. It sounded like Victor, but if it was, Victor was not alone. There was at least one more mental signature behind me and it was very wrong, but at the time I was sure that Victor must have been there somewhere, it was definitely his voice. I wasn't so sure about anything anymore.

I had been completely bowled over, what had happened? Where were the ones Mr. Cataliades had sent? How had Victor learned of our plans and been so ready to intercept me at this crucial moment and with terrifying and unknown reinforcements? I ran as fast as I could, following the light, trying to get to the meeting point and to safety, knowing without a doubt that Victor, who I could hear closing in on me from behind would catch me in a race, as vampires always would. I could hear crashing and growling, a violent fight breaking out just feet behind me; my knees wanted to buckle but I pushed on, legs like jelly, lungs on fire, and not an ounce of hope that I would escape. I entered a clearing just before a terrible force struck me on the back, throwing me painfully to the ground…I fought, it was to no avail, but I tried. I had to, I couldn't die…Hunter needed me. This wasn't supposed to happen!

I felt Eric push his way into the bond and suddenly I could hear him yelling in my mind. I tried to do as he asked, but there was no hope, I could feel my body dying. So I focused on sending him my love and apologies for the pain I had caused him. How had this happened? All of my carefully laid plans…wasted.

Eric wasn't willing to give up on me, he kept encouraging me and when he realized that it was too late to save me, he sent me waves of the sweetest and most unguarded love that I had ever felt from him. I expected him to leave, the bond was shrieking with the need for him to leave, but he held onto me, comforting me. I used what little energy I had to nudge him away, back out of the bond. Finally he let me go as I gave up, my body screaming in pain, and I welcomed the darkness.

When I awoke, I jumped a foot in in the air and searched around for attackers. There were none that I could see nor sense, I was alone. I was sitting in a strange car, wearing my new clothes. My hair was wet and I was clean. I gasped as I felt the loss of the bond burning a hole in my chest, echoing with emptiness. I reached out for him, but he was gone. There was no bond…no Eric. What had happened? What had happened to Victor and the other being I hadn't recognized?

After a moment of thought, I realized that this must have been the plan all along, to fool me, as well as Eric by threatening me with something that already truly terrified me. It had worked, I was sure that I should have died and I knew from the emotions I received from Eric that he had believed it too.

I sat for a few seconds more before something caught my eye and I realized that I was wearing the pendant that my ancestor had given me. Whoever had helped me, cleaned and dressed me had found it and placed it around my neck. My ancestor had mentioned that I should trust the ones who were to help me last night, so I guess the fact that I was alive and that they had made sure I was wearing the pendant was a sign that I could trust them in the future.

I placed my hand over it and at that moment, Diantha's words of warning rang through my head, _Uncle says, follow the plan and then run…fast_.

What was I doing? Now was not the time for grieving or thinking, I had to run. There was little time.

0-0-0-0-0

I shook myself out of my memories and got up from my chair on the deck and walked back into the room, opening my carry-on to find my toothbrush and a clean set of clothes. As I pulled back the top of the bag, I gasped as I saw Eric staring up at me from the calendar picture. My hand trembled as I reached for the photo, but I couldn't pick it up. Nestled next to the picture was the cluviel dor. Vampires and fae. Fae and vampires. I loved them, I hated them, I feared them. They loved me, they wanted to use, abuse or kill me and little Hunter. My head spun with fear, love, grief, loss and despair. All that I had lost because of vampires and fae flashed before my eyes.

I burst out crying and raging again and for a while I forgot my reasoning that supported these drastic changes. Why had I done this to Eric and to myself, to my loved ones, to Hunter? When I finally calmed enough to review the events that had led me to my drastic choices and I saw the clear picture of the hopelessness of the situation, I screamed out in frustration and anguish and threw a shoe across the room where it slammed into the wall and fell to the floor with a dull thunk. I joined it as I sobbed for my lost life and for my fear of the future.

Was there no hope?

E~

Our plans were set. Oklahoma's vampire contingent had arrived tonight and were meeting at Pam's residence. We would have a private service for Sookie tomorrow night and on Monday we would host two public memorials. Pam, Sam and Amelia contacted important and trusted people in Sookie's life and invited them to tomorrow's service. Sam and Sookie's friend Tara were planning a public memorial service for Monday night. This second gathering was to be two-fold. One part which would take place at the cemetery was for undesirables who would come to taunt me or to show my wife disrespect, I hoped to draw them all together where I could take care of them, permanently, yet slowly enough to get the answers I needed.

I knew that Victor would be there. He had already contacted me and I could hear the glee in his voice. I would disable him, find out what he knew about her death and then I would end him, as painfully as I could. He had the gall and stupidity to tell me that I would have to face Felipe's censure for allowing Sookie to be killed since she was under Felipe's official protection. I would cut out his tongue for those words and feed it to him.

Felipe himself was keeping his head down as an intelligent vampire would do when faced with my anger. He called me himself, after all my weeks of attempting to reach him. He carefully sent his regrets for her loss, informed me that he would not be able to attend and 'offered' to send four of his vampires out to 'assist'. I knew what he was doing, he was aware that I had passed my breaking point and that I would be making a move on his throne. He was making a pathetic show of power to try and stop the overthrow he suspected was imminent, but it would be a useless gesture. I smiled viciously as I accepted his help. Four taken down in Louisiana meant four fewer to fight when we took Nevada. Felipe had extended his life by a few days, but his extra 'support' would not help his Regent.

I was not surprised, but impressed by the number of vampires, humans, shifters and demons who truly wanted to show their respects and who offered to help with Sookie's service. Russell in Mississippi called to send his and Bart's regrets that he would not be able to travel due to his prolonged healing still ongoing from the bombing in Rhodes. Stan in Texas would not come either, but he offered his telepath to help keep troublemakers from disrupting us. Stan didn't know of our plans but I was happy to accept the assistance, the telepath would help us steer innocent people to the church where Sam's public memorial service would take place. The humans and shifters cleared by the telepath would be diverted there from the cemetery in an apparent 'last minute change of plans'. Sookie would have wanted them to be safe.

We were ready. Now I just had to get through tomorrow night.

Sunday

S~

Although I had begun to grieve, I was still numb, my nerves were frayed from fear and heartache. I had grieved my way across America and the Pacific Ocean and now I was numb. The flight attendants had cared for me as best they could after I told them I had lost my husband, brother and friends in a terrible accident. That wasn't much of a lie really when you think about it, except it wasn't an accident that took me away from everyone I loved, it was a group of power hungry and evil individuals who would use and abuse anyone to get more power.

I fluctuated between terrible grief and loss, anger at everything and everyone, and guilt. You can understand the guilt, but still I punished myself for my emotions. This had been my decision, how could I stake a claim on emotions such as these when others were truly facing loss. I was such a selfish bitch. I had no right to it…and yet I grieved.

What I did feel I had a right to was my anger and man did I feel it. I had never been totally capable of embracing this level of anger and hatred before, but now I could feel it expand though my body in a totally foreign way. The only pleasure I had was in the images looping through my brain of Eric killing Victor, Felipe and fae who always had Naeve and Lochlan's faces. I'm not a violent person, at least not an unjustifiably violent person, but if they and other nameless, faceless vampires and fae hadn't been so eager to scoop Hunter and me up, I wouldn't have had to leave. So I hated them.

I found the anger easier to deal with than the grief, it empowered me, satisfied me and I had felt an unfamiliar source of gratification when I threw my shoe at the wall. The violence of it awakened something within me, and I wished I had something or someone to beat up.

As soon as I felt the rise of righteous energy from my anger, reality hit me and I realized that even if I hadn't been threatened, I would still be parted from Eric and he would now be marrying another woman, leaving me behind, and the sadness would creep back…swallowing me once again.

E~

I stood in her room, in her empty house, in the hours following her service, unable to touch anything.

Her scent was so strong I swore I could turn around and see her standing by her dresser, brushing her hair…sleeping in bed, her face relaxed and her lashes brushing her cheeks…reclined on the bed, her skin glistening in the moonlight, her trusting blue eyes beckoning me to her.

Being in this space erased the last five nights and I could almost believe that she was with me still…but she was not.

I reverently picked up her hairbrush and placed my nose to the bristles. Her scent was thick and her hair tickled my nose as it did when I held her close to my chest. I placed the brush on her bedside table with my cell phone as I made my way to her bathroom. I reached into her nearly empty laundry basket and pulled out a blue scoop neck shirt. Her scent was unusually strong on the material. I tucked the hem of the shirt into the top of my pants, keeping a part of her close to me.

My fingers touched, my eyes sought but I could find no clues as to what drove her to that patch of swamp. No hints were provided on her computer, her phone, in the garbage or on any object in the house. I had the same questions; who was she going to see? What had she been expecting? I did not believe that she had stopped at that spot along the road because of the Weres. No, she had planned to meet someone there, but why? To what end? I could tell that she knew it would be difficult and frightening but she had not expected her own death; all evidence corroborated that she was shocked and scared. This was not suicide or assisted suicide as that fucker Dearborn had suggested. It was all I could do not to assist him in his own suicide when those words passed his lips.

Then there were the other questions…Who had killed her? Where was her body? Whoever it was had a few hours before Sam arrived to move her…but to where and why? Was her body or her head to be a tribute of some kind, proof of her death? Was that why they had slit her throat, to remove her head? That was common in my time and much after, but was very unusual now. The only ones I knew who still did that were the Elves.

The very thought of her body being damaged further than it already was ate at my insides like silver forced down my throat. I would find those answers if I had to search every night for the rest of my life or torture every human, vampire and shifter in the state.

Each time I closed my eyes, horrors passed before them. I was desperate to find her, but if she had been killed by this Scrios as suspected by Niall, then she could be anywhere, completely gone already or simply masked from our eyes as her killer had been.

According to Niall, there would be no answers unless the Scrios responsible was found. I removed the stone from my pocket and carefully pulled back the cloth that protected it. This was the only thing I had that would lead me to her murderer. This scent. This unique and distinct scent. I would share it with every vampire and shifter in the state once I was king and one of them would find the source and bring it to me or lead me to it. I would have the witch Octavia to do a locator spell on the blood to see if we could find the owner of the blood. I would have answers, I would have my vengeance.

My thoughts appeased my mind, but my soul didn't believe them, there was only one thing I truly wanted and it was impossible to have. I stopped my fruitless search, pulled back her comforter, removed my shoes and climbed into her bed. Our combined scents embraced me as I finally allowed my grief to overtake me and I mourned for the loss of my lover.

A/N: The next chapter is titled 'Hope'. I'm sharing that so you can have some too.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: We made it! I know those were tough chapters to get through. I'm happy to be on the other side too. The next two chapters should be more relaxing and will introduce you to a few new people and a new place before the plot picks back up again.

Chapter 14

Hope

I was sitting on the deck of the cottage, caught up in another cycle of crying, when I heard a noise coming from the deck next door. This was strange because it had been completely silent until now. I checked my shields and was stunned to find that they were solidly in place. All this time, while I had been wracked by my emotions, they had been remained firm. I tried to remember the last time I had hears another mind. I thought back to the flights; the first two on Thursday had been difficult with the intrusion of all the minds, but I didn't remember having to work on keeping my shields up on the the trip from California to Hawaii on Friday. I had never managed that before, my shields were always weaker when I was emotional, but I was certainly grateful for any relief I could find.

As I grabbed another tissue to blow my nose, a small blond head peeked around the partition between my deck and the one next door.

"Hey," she said and disappeared again. Then a pizza box was shoved over my railing, "Grab this, will you?" Out of sheer shock and reflex, I did as I was told. Moments later, one skinny leg came over my railing followed by a tiny body with big boobs. She was dressed in a red plaid wrap around tank and the shortest shorts I had ever seen. Her skinny legs had knobby knees that stuck out of the shorts like flamingo legs.

She grabbed the pizza back from me with a quick "Thanks," sat down in the chair next to me and opened the box, revealing a large pizza with everything on it, or so it seemed. She groaned, grabbed a slice, folded it in half lengthwise and took a huge bite.

I sat there with my tissue in my hand and watched that tiny creature, she had to be less than five feet tall and well under 100 pounds soaking wet, devour four slices of pizza before sitting back and placing her hands over her now visibly round belly. "Whoops" she said and jumped up, climbed back around the partition like a monkey and then came back with a handful of capsules and a huge glass of milk. She tossed all of the pills in her mouth at once and chugged the full glass noisily before belching loudly, sitting back again and looking at me.

"Well, aren't you going to eat?" she questioned, motioning to the pizza.

I had no response for her, how in the world could I? Gran would have read her the riot act for her poor manners, but I couldn't find even one word to say. Now that she was fed, her cheeks formed bright pink circles when she smiled and her blue eyes twinkled. What in the world was going on? Who was this obviously insane person? Her appearance had been so sudden and her behavior so at odds with my emotional state that my befuddled mind perceived her almost as a dream. I tried to blink her away, but she was here on my deck, in my face, wanting me to talk to her…

"What are you doing?" I asked her, forgetting all my manners in my grief and surprise at her strange entrance. My voice sounded hollow and dead to my own ears, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Having dinner, an early dinner by Hawaiian standards, but I got hungry…actually, I'm always hungry. I can eat anytime." she said with a smile. I believed her. How had such a tiny thing put away half of a large pizza with all the toppings?

"No…" I said none to kindly, "I meant, what are you doing eating your dinner on my deck?"

"Lanai, it's called a lanai here in Hawaii. Personally, I don't care what you call it, but you'll peg yourself as a tourist if you call it a deck, but don't worry, I get you," she shrugged her shoulder nonchalantly. "Well, I'm here because I know you haven't been out of your room for the past two days and I also know that you haven't had any food delivered. So I figured you might be hungry and want a little company."

"I'm just fine, thanks," I said rudely. I really didn't want anyone interrupting my pity party and I really didn't like that she had been watching me, I was supposed to have disappeared, to be invisible to anyone but myself.

"Actually, since I've been the one who has had to listen to you crying for the last two days, I would have to disagree with your assessment. You are anything but fine," she said kindly but with a steady look.

I scowled at her and blew my nose again.

"But, all of us have times when we are definitely 'not fine' so I'm here to distract you, feed you and give you a shoulder if you want one," she said patting her bony shoulder.

I bristled, "I don't need help but thank you very much." I could almost feel Gran slapping my head at my rudeness.

She shrugged and said, "Okay, I'm next door if you need anything." She stood and disappeared back onto her deck…lanai…whatever, leaving her pizza behind.

I sat there brooding for a little while longer before giving in and picking up a slice. It was heavenly. I hadn't realized that I was hungry until I began eating and then I couldn't stop until the rest was gone. I had never eaten 4 slices of pizza before, but the food seemed to simply be absorbed into the huge hole that now existed in the center of my body. I still felt hollow, but no longer hungry at least.

A few minutes after I finished, my visitor stuck her head back around the partition and said with a smile, "Better?"

I grimaced at her and nodded.

"Good!" she said as she hopped back over and sat down again. This time she had a bottle of wine in her hand and two glasses, which she placed on the table in front of us before sitting back down in her chair.

"I'm Macey," she said with a smile and held her hand out to me.

"Jeanne," I said back and resignedly shook her tiny but surprisingly strong hand. I didn't hear anything from her when I touched her hand…unusual, but good.

"We're a good pair in these cottages, huh? Both blonds, both blue eyes with boobs, pretty funny." Not really.

"Yeah," I said trying to be conversational and failing, "except that you are tiny and I am…not." I had noted through my daze that all of my new clothes were size 8 and figured that the stress of the last few months had had at least one good side effect.

"Well, I'm really a brunette, and these," she cupped her perky breasts, "not mine either," she said with a wicked smile, "but I look like a twelve year old boy without them. So, what are you doing in Hana?"

I slogged through my cloudy mind to piece together my official story. I kept it brief; I'd learned that less is often more, "I'm moving here with my son and I came first to buy a house and set it up before he arrived. You?" I asked as an afterthought, forcing myself to talk.

"I don't really know. I came out here to swim with the dolphins two weeks ago and decided that I wanted to stay. I'll be looking for a place too for myself and my son, Peter, he's 7, how old is your son?"

She had a 7 year old son? I didn't peg her for being over 18 years old, obviously she must look a lot younger than she really was.

"Hunter is 6, he's with family right now, back home, but he'll come in a few weeks when I'm sure it's…when I'm ready." Crap I almost slipped, I had to pay more attention to what my mouth was saying.

"And his Dad…will he be coming too?" she asked carefully, I thought she guessed what I had been about to say.

"No, we lost his father." I lied but my emotions were so raw, tears welled up anyway. "It's just Hunter and me, his father and I were divorced a while ago anyway."

Macey gave my hand a squeeze, "I'm single too, never married Peter's dad, it was just a fling when I was really young, but Peter has been the best thing in my life. He's with my mom and step-dad back in Virginia. That's where I'm from originally. They'll all be coming out to drop him off and for a visit in a few weeks once I find a place for us to live. Mom's pretty pissed off at me that I'm moving all the way out here, but this place just sort of calls to me, you know?" she said with a shrug, looking out at the ocean.

I realized at that moment that I had not really looked around, to see where I was. My eyes were open, but I wasn't processing what they were seeing.

I allowed myself to focus on my surroundings and felt my mouth drop open a little. It was absolutely breathtaking. Our cottages sat on the edge of a small cliff at the water's edge. Waves crashed onto the land just twenty feet in front of me and the ocean seemed to go on and on forever and was the most beautiful shade of blue. The color was familiar to me and with an inward groan I realized that it was the color of Eric's eyes and I had to look away from it.

All around the cottage, breeze lightly blew thick blades of grass that were the richest shade of green I had ever seen. To the right was a short white fence that separated the hotel's property from a pasture where horses grazed. The breeze picked up my hair and blew it back from my face, the air was fresh, warm and scented by the ocean, just breathing in the air here made me feel stronger.

It truly was a magical place.

"Yeah, I feel it too," I said, surprising myself.

Macey smiled to herself and then looked back up at me, "So what will you do here?" she questioned, leaning over to grab the wine bottle, which she opened quickly and filled both glasses, passing one to me.

I stared at the yellowish liquid, remembering my last glass of wine, "I'm going to raise Hunter, buy a house and a car. Beyond that, I don't know…you?"

"Oh, I'm a social worker, but I've never really practiced much. I've been teaching some classes here at the hotel's fitness center, you know, kick boxing, step, zumba, the regular stuff. They pay really well and are even letting me stay here in the empty rooms for free until I find a place to live." She smiled and winked at me, "Obviously I'm not trying too hard to find somewhere to go, I love this place and everyone who works here, they make it feel like home."

"That's great," I said and then struggled to keep the conversation going and ended up sticking my foot in my mouth, "I guess that's why you're so skinny, all the exercise," clearly I was not worrying about being considerate. To hide my discomfort, I raised my glass to hers and then took a sip.

"Oh, nah, I'm small because I have cystic fibrosis," she said as she sipped her wine.

I gave her a confused look, that was one I'd heard of, but didn't know much about.

"It's a lung disease, but it causes problems with digestion and sometimes diabetes too, that's what all the pills were for. It doesn't cause me too many problems right now, but I keep myself in shape and try to take care of my health. It can really bite you in the ass if you get sick or weak, but I've been really lucky so far. On the positive side, I can basically eat anything I want and never have a problem with my weight."

I wasn't sure what to make of that, "Well, you look healthy," I said searching for something to say.

"Thanks, I work at it. So do you want to talk about what has you so torn up?" she asked. That was some change in topic, I didn't see that one coming.

"Not really," I answered honestly. I was finally feeling a little more like myself, I didn't want to go back there again right away.

"Okay, well, I'm here if you need me, just climb over or come on in anytime you wanna chat, I don't lock my doors." I gaped at her, I couldn't even imagine having a life that would allow me to be comfortable without locking my doors anymore.

"Thanks," I said, and I meant it. She would be easy to talk to, if I was ever ready to share.

We chatted for a while longer about simple things as we watched the sun set. It was so beautiful, orange streaks ran across the sky melting into the darkening ocean. I was so sad to have to go back inside, but my anxiety had been increasing as it got darker, a fact that had not escaped my present company. I invited Macey in, saying that I needed to unpack and she offered to help me get organized.

"I saw all the bags of clothes you brought with you, I'd love to see if I could fit in any of them," she said as she bounded into the cottage with the bottle of wine. Good luck with that one, she must wear a size 2. At least the personal shopper had encouraged me to buy all casual wear and only a few nicer pieces, saying that if I wanted to meld into the town, I shouldn't dress as fancy as I had been expecting. Thank goodness.

Macey gave me an odd look as I breathed an internal sigh of relief once I had closed and locked the door behind us, but she turned to our task without a comment.

I was comfortable with Macey, she would be an easy friend to have. Most people would not have been able to let something like that go without asking a hundred questions.

_Monday_

I actually slept that night after accepting Macey's goodnight hug and crawling under the cozy comforter and soft sheet of the huge white bed. I stretched and took a deep breath…I was going to be able to do this, I told myself, and I actually thought I might be right. I felt the beginning of excitement building within me because I would be meeting with the realtor this morning to look at houses. I climbed out of bed and realized that I was starving again.

I found the menu and ordered room service, I wasn't up for going to the dining room yet. In the meantime, I found a basket of fruit and bread on a table by the lanai and popped a couple of luscious berries into my mouth as I went into the beautiful bathroom. There was a huge deep bath on the left and a gloriously large shower on the right walled in fully by glass. I gratefully peeled off my pajamas, suddenly realizing how dirty I felt. I had not showered for more than three days, ugh how had Macey tolerated sitting next to me last night?

I stepped into the shower and scrubbed and scrubbed, loving the flower scented soaps, shampoo and conditioners provided by the hotel. They smelled so good and seemed to lighten my mood even more, I would have to order some of these to use later.

I let my hair dry naturally and left it down, trying to break old patterns. As I applied my make-up I noticed that although I was still tired and had been crying for days, I looked pretty good. My skin was bright and clear and my eyes seemed to sparkle a bit. It must be Hawaii, working its magic on me. I attempted a smile. Wow my teeth were white. Strange. I had a flash of how I looked after I'd had a good dose of vampire blood without needing it for healing. I always looked a little younger and prettier, but I hadn't had much of Eric's blood recently. Ugh, that thought brought fresh to my mind the look on Eric's face the last time we shared blood, and my eyes began to fill again. I blinked them back ruthlessly, I had to keep going today, I couldn't disappear again, so I forced myself to kept focused on my hopes for the day.

I heard a knock at the door and asked who it was while at the same time, lowering my shields to confirm their response.

"Room service," came a lilting voice. I opened the door for the attendant and stood aside to let the let her in. She said, "Good morning," handed me a bundle of beautiful flowers and returned to her golf cart where she retrieved a covered tray. "Where would you like to eat?" she asked as she carried the tray into the cottage.

"Oh, um, on the deck…lanai" I corrected and rushed over to open the sliding door. She put the tray on the table and I signed for the food, thanking her.

She removed the cover from the tray revealing a sumptuous breakfast of fruits, breads and hot oatmeal, my comfort food of choice this morning. "I hear that you're staying with us for a month," she said a little shyly. "I'm Christine, I just wanted to introduce myself since we'll probably be seeing a lot of one another in the next few weeks."

Christine appeared to be in her early twenties, she had the rich glowing skin of a native Hawaiian, beautiful dark eyes and hair that hung down to her middle back. My shields were still down and I could hear that this interaction was hard for her, she was shy, but had wanted to reach out to me for some reason.

How sweet, "Oh, thanks, I'm Jeanne. Yes, I'll be here until I find a house in the area and get it set up. I'm going out with my realtor this morning."

"Ohhhh, that's right, you're going to have a lot of fun. You'll love some of the houses, they're so pretty," she said looking excited.

"How do you know which ones I'll be seeing?" I was caught a bit off guard with her knowledge of my plans.

She flushed a little, "Your realtor, Ian is my Uncle. He told me last night at dinner that he was taking you out looking. A couple of the places are empty so he's shown them to me before." Then she smiled widely, "I bet I know which one you'll like the best!"

I've been paranoid for too long, there was nothing nefarious going on here, she was just a friendly person. "Really, which one?" I said.

"No way, I can't tell you…but I will say that if you ask, I bet you can get a lot of the owners to leave their furniture behind. Moving stuff on and off the island is a pain so that's pretty common around here."

"Hey, thanks," I said, that would be a huge relief and I could get Hunter out here that much faster.

"Well, gotta go, have fun. Aloha Jeanne."

"Aloha," I mumbled to her back as she left, amazed by how nice she was. Her uncle, huh, this _was_ a small town. Exactly what I had wanted. Things were looking up.

As she left, I heard her thinking that I sure didn't look like the girl everyone had been talking about who was so sad and withdrawn. She was hoping we could be friends since there were so few young and single people in Hana. I smiled and then felt the smile slide off my face when I realized that all she was seeing was a shell over my broken insides. I hoped I could someday feel like the person she thought I was.

After enjoying a delicious breakfast and gathering up a pad of paper and pen to make notes about the houses we saw, I took a deep breath and stepped out of my front door. I stood on the stoop and searched for minds, checking for anything out of place. Everything seemed typical for a tropical getaway and I blushed as I hit on a honeymooning couple in the cottage to the left. I quickly let my shields back up and decided to try and relax a little. I walked up the slight incline past the vacant pool and through the grounds to the main building. The place was deserted except for a young couple snuggling in a hammock under two palm trees. I tried not to look, I didn't want to ruin my fragile good mood.

I wandered to the front of the main building to find a young man standing at the drive-up check-in stand. He smiled as I arrived, "Aloha Jeanne, it's a beautiful morning for your house hunting," he said. Did everyone know what I was doing today and how did he know my name? Slowly it hit me, he had greeted me when I arrived and had helped me with all my bags. He actually drove me to my cottage in a golf cart and then returned a few minutes later with all my stuff. I had been so out of it, I really didn't remember what we'd talked about.

I nodded at him and said, "I'm meeting Ian, my realtor here in a few minutes."

"Sure you are, he's already here, just inside chatting with Ha'iku, she's his cousin." I wasn't sure who Ha'iku was, but I wasn't surprised to find more connections in this small town. "Hey, would you like a bottle of water to take with you?" he said walking to a small refrigerator and taking out a bottle.

This is ridiculous, who is this nice? I hadn't been to too many hotels, but I didn't think this was the norm. "Thanks, that would be great," I almost felt a chuckle of disbelief form in my chest at how friendly everyone seemed to be, it was a strange sensation.

"So, are you related to other people who work here?" I asked.

He snorted out a laugh, "It sure seems like a family, doesn't it? I remember how I felt as though I stepped into a family reunion when I got here two years ago. No, I'm from Seattle. I came to Hawaii to surf after I graduated college and I never left. Ian actually helped me find my rental place when I came, he's great."

"Why, thank you for the glowing recommendation, Mike," rumbled a deep voice from behind me. I turned to see a large man with dark hair, eyes and rich skin. He was dressed in a flowered shirt and tan shorts and wore a steady smile.

"You must be Jeanne, I'm Ian," he said and held out his large hand.

"Yes," I said "It's nice to meet you," his hand swallowed mine up, even covering some of my wrist.

I stiffened as I noticed that his hand had tightened on mine and his eyes had drifted down towards my chest. I was very uncomfortable that my realtor, who I was to spend the day alone with, was checking out my boobs.

His eyes widened and then squinted a bit, I began to pull my hand out of his, I didn't need this on top of everything else today. "That's a unique necklace you have there Jeanne, did you get it here?" he asked. I breathed a small sigh of relief, he wasn't looking at my boobs, but at my necklace and he was honestly interested in it for some reason. The way he asked his question made me sure that he knew I hadn't purchased it here.

"No," I said carefully thinking carefully through the ramifications of each word I said, "it's a family heirloom." I couldn't possibly explain the family connection since I didn't understand it myself.

He studied me for another brief moment, "Hmmm, well are you ready to go house hunting?" he asked, quickly changing the topic. I wanted to know why he was so interested in my necklace, but my shields were as strong as they had been yesterday and I didn't hear a thing. I would have to get better at dropping my shields quickly so I could catch little nuances like that to keep on my toes.

"Yes," I said, trying to sound excited, "let's go." I turned to Mike, I guess that was his name, and thanked him again for the water.

"No problem, good luck, but if you don't find a place you like, I'll kick out my roommate and you can move in with me!" he said with a wink as we walked to a silver Toyota parked nearby.

I actually chuckled this time.

Ian climbed in and asked if I wanted the windows up or down. "Down, definitely down," I said with a smile that was lingering from Mike's friendly joke, "so long as you don't mind a rats nest on my head later."

"No problem, we won't be going too far or too fast. We'll keep your curls intact," he said with a harmless smile.

Curls? I didn't have curls, I had the occasional wave on good days, but never curls. I peeked in the side view mirror and saw that he was right, my hair had dried in loose curls. Wow, this Hawaiian air and water were the best, or maybe it was the shampoo the hotel provided. Usually it took me an hour to achieve this look with a curling iron. I could get used to this. I remembered how my hair had loved Rhodes too, but that time it had been the lack of frizz that I enjoyed in the northern air.

We drove about five minutes along narrow winding roads before pulling into a driveway. Ian detailed the property as we drove toward the house. "This is a 4-bed, two-bath water view property with a ranch floor plan on just over a quarter acre."

I got out of the car and looked around. The grounds were unkempt and the house needed painting. I stopped, closed my eyes and dropped my shields. I could hear the neighbors on both sides and behind the house easily.

"Sorry Ian, this isn't the one for me," I said as I walked back to the car.

"Don't apologize. This is good, it's great that you know what you want, it'll make the search easier. Tell me what you don't like and we'll cut out others with similar features."

"Well I'm really looking for a place with more distance between the house and others and I definitely don't want a fixer upper."

"Good," he said and removed six pages from the pile.

The next three properties were better, in fact, they were gorgeous, but nothing screamed at me yet and I could hear the neighbors in all of them. I found that I enjoyed touring the houses and taking in the Hawaiian style of decorating and landscaping. I'd never done anything like this before, it felt decadent.

We stopped for lunch at a small stand that Ian said was right by the hotel. I was turned around so I took his word for it. Ian knew the owners and spent our lunch discussing the chances of the Packers winning the Super Bowl the next season. I thought the Packers were from somewhere in the Midwest and was informed that they were from Wisconsin and that I would learn to love football and especially the Packers while living in Hana. I guess Hana residents were huge Packer fans. It sure seemed funny to me for the people from a warm place to love a team from such a cold state.

The conversation was light and easy, so I joined in without thinking, "I used to go to all the high school football games in my home town. My broth…" I faltered with my heart aching, cleared my throat as they stared at me, waiting for me to finish my statement, "my brother used to play," I finished quietly. Why was it that I treasured Jason more now than at any other time before? I was having trouble remembering all the things he did that hurt me and made me upset. It figures, I always let him off the hook for the things he did to me, after a while at least.

After lunch, we stopped at a property that was right near the hotel, but separated by two miles of oceanfront pastureland that I had seen horses grazing from my cottage. That was promising.

Ian turned onto a long driveway and began his description of the house, "This is a 4 bed 3 and a half bath, two story ocean front home with an office, loft and a work space. It has a guesthouse and meditation building on the property, but the guesthouse is far enough away for privacy. The guesthouse has two bedrooms and 2 and a half baths. There's a pool near the main house, designed with lap swimming in mind. The property is 15 acres."

The house appeared as we came around a corner and I knew that this was what I was looking for. It sat on a small rise with the ocean spread out behind it (or in front of it, depending on your point of view). It was two stories tall with, I guess it would still be called a lanai running the length of both stories on the waterside. The house was painted a natural green color so that it blended into the landscape and didn't mar the beauty of the land. The landscaping was beautiful, complete with stone walls that made pathways and sitting nooks here and there in the shade. I could already see Hunter playing here and could picture the two of us sitting on the lanai eating dinner.

I walked up to the front steps, closed my eyes, listened and heard…nothing but Ian, nothing at all. A smile crossed my lips.

The house was amazing. Everything was updated and similar in quality to what I saw in Eric, Alcede or Pam's houses; top of the line. Granite, stainless steel, walk-in closets, fireplaces, master suite…the list just went on and on. Although it was too grand for what I needed, it was exactly what I wanted. I would want a lot of space inside the house to entertain Hunter after nightfall and once I purchased the home, even the lanai would be 'safe'.

The pool was pretty, but since I didn't swim much, unnecessary for me, maybe Hunter would enjoy it, although anxiety set in at the idea of Hunter in water. Naeve and Lochlan had taunted me about my sky fairy descendant father trying to drive across water. Well, I couldn't be afraid of everything, but that would be a hard one to get over.

We rode around the property on a golf cart that came with the property (no kidding), at times on the lush grass and at others, a paved walkway that went from the main house to the guesthouse. I wasn't too sure what I would do with the meditation space, which looked more like a small gym to me, but I knew that Hunter would find a use for it.

I loved the guesthouse as much as the main house, it was the same shade of green, but just one story. It had the same lanai and looked a lot like the other house inside, although it was more cozy and warm. I asked Ian to go back to the main house to get the notepad that I had been taking notes on, which I had deliberately left there and I listened for his thoughts as he drove away. Just after he made a tight turn toward the main house, his thoughts became muffled and I could only sense his emotional palate, not his actual thoughts, and that was with some effort. I smiled, Hunter would not be able to hear thoughts from so far away, so this could be a functional guesthouse for us. We could have people stay here and Hunter would not be troubled by their thoughts. I could block my mind from him, but he would hear everyone else, so this privacy was essential. I wanted home to be a place of comfort and relaxation for both of us.

When Ian returned, I smiled at him and said, "I'll take it and all the furnishings if the sellers are willing to part with them." I was incredibly grateful that I could make this decision without having to worry about money. I said a silent thanks to my ancestor who had gifted us with the funds to find a peaceful and (hopefully) safe place to live.

"There we go," he said happily, and then he frowned.

"What's wrong?" I asked cautiously, thinking that something was wrong with the property.

"My niece, Christine, will be unbearable, she guessed right. I owe her ten dollars," he said with a huge smile.

Ian called me a few hours after he dropped me off at the hotel. The sellers were ecstatic to accept my bid on the house and they would leave everything that was still in there, having moved all they really wanted when they left. We had a number of steps to follow including an inspection and title search, so we set the closing date for ten days from today. Hunter would be able to come out of hiding wherever he was with Remy in less than two weeks so long as the area remained safe for us. It was better than I could have expected. I was even given permission to go to the house whenever I needed to measure or explore, Ian just gave me a key at the seller's request. Could this place be real? I almost didn't care if it was real or not, it seemed safe, I liked it and Hunter would be coming soon.

Hope was blooming in my broken soul.

P~

An hour till showtime and he still wasn't here. I knew he was unhurt, but beyond that, I didn't have a clue what he was doing. I had left my Miriam at sunset to help in organizing our attack and he was still not here; the spearhead of our attack. What the fuck?

I couldn't stand still any longer, I was buzzing in anticipation of the fight and needed some peace so I wandered over to Sookie's house from Bill's where everyone had gathered. I nodded as I passed the hired Weres and witches who were gathered to guard the periphery of the cemetery to make sure no one escaped once the battle began.

I knew that Eric had spent last night here after Sookie's actual service; he said he wanted to look for clues, but I could feel the real reason for his isolation. It was about time, he had been a ticking time bomb and his house didn't have many more rooms for him to destroy.

His grief had been overwhelming me and had soaked into the joy of my first nights alone with my Miriam. I had left her in the care of Rubio and Parker last night and tonight they would care for her again, being that they were relatively useless in a fight anyway. I had returned to Miriam immediately after Sookie's service last night and had enjoyed a night of rabid drinking and sex, the two things a new vampire desires above all else and exactly what I needed after sitting through that hour of horrors humans called a memorial service.

It fucking sucked.

Why humans and shifters thought it was beneficial to sit silently and listen to others talk about your lost friend or lover is beyond me and the pain it caused Eric was almost unbearable.

I think it's a perverse but somehow socially acceptable way for the humans to have an excuse to be a voyeur on another's pain, just to make themselves feel better. I could just see some of them looking at Eric and feeling better for their sorry selves because he was in more pain than they were. I couldn't stand a single moment of it and was desperate to get away; I didn't need this service to remember my friend, I had already mourned her in private.

Luckily Eric handled it better than I did, although I have no clue how he did it.

If I had been in charge of planning the memorial, it would have been much more appropriate. Although I was English, I found the Irish way of celebrating life much improved over this horrible tradition Americans generally used these days. The Irish used to gather in a pub with music, drinks and stories of the the dead friend's escapades. That is what Sookie deserved. Her stories should be told with bravado, laughter and love, not tears and solemn voices.

I had been much better once I returned to Miriam. She was amazing; funny, beautiful and strong, just as I had known she would be. My blood had even healed some of the damage the drugs and the cancer had done to her body, so it was hard to tell that she had been ill at all.

I was relieved that she was safe and far away from the battle tonight, she didn't have any fighting skills and wouldn't fare well. It was strange to find myself caring about a vampire other than Eric, I'd never really thought of anyone besides the two of us. I wouldn't admit it to him, but I liked having someone else to care about.

I stepped onto Sookie's front walk, hoping that Jason had included me in his invitation when he allowed Eric to return to the house to get the items Sookie had left for him. She certainly thought she was being funny, leaving me her clothing, but I was excited to get the Benelli; maybe Jason would give me a few pointers…he was yummy.

I tried to step on the porch and then to touch her door and to my relief, I was allowed right in. The house was still a mess with items from her attic spread everywhere, she would not like people seeing it this way. I momentarily thought about taking some of it back upstairs for her, but was distracted as I took a sniff and breathed in the delicious scent of fairy. They hadn't been here in a few days, but the scent was still strong and I had to force myself to stay on task.

I went to Sookie's immaculate bedroom closet and removed the black throw Alcide had given to her. I would only be able to wear it when Eric wasn't around, but I liked it. I also found a few dresses that could potentially work and one bikini I thought Miriam might enjoy. Nothing else would fit either of us. I did grab the beautiful purse Eric gave her that matched her cranberry jacket, it shouldn't go to waste, but again, I would be careful to only use it out of his sight.

I turned to leave the room when I noticed something peculiar on the bed.

Eric had clearly spent last night here, one pillow and the sheet was stained with his blood, but that was not what had caught my attention. The pillow on the left that was streaked by Eric's blood was pure white; the one next to it was a faded cream, almost white with age and had a thin lace trim. I picked up the cream pillow and found that the case was fresh whereas I could catch Sookie's scent from the other at this distance.

What the hell? I knew Sookie, had watched her more than she realized as I tried to figure out what drew Eric to her. She was a tidy person to the extreme and I couldn't imagine that she would change one pillowcase and not the other.

It was possible that she was rushed and didn't have time to change the whole bed, but needed to change one pillowcase if it got bloody the last night Eric was over. I stalked to her laundry basket and tore through it, but didn't find a match. Then I sought out her supply of linens and found the match to the clean case. It wasn't that she didn't have a matching one…so where was the other?

Sookie had been under the impression that she might not see Eric again after the last night they were together, so maybe she took it with her as a keepsake. That sounded like her. I returned to the living room where the contents of her car had been left before the car was given back to her friend Tara. I opened her suitcase and rifled through the contents, smelling for Eric's scent. Nothing. I checked in her purse but it wansn't in there either. Where could it be?

My body surged suddenly as I felt Eric nearing, his bloodlust was flowing into me. It was time. He was coming. I looked back into Sookie's room and at her bed. The mystery of the missing pillowcase bothered me more than it should. This was a question I would return to and I would definitely be back to do more searching of this house with a woman's eyes. Maybe I could pick up more clues as to what the hell had happened to my friend. The pieces to this puzzle were not fitting together for me and I hoped that if I could provide Eric with some answers, he…we both might be able to find some relief.

A/N: A huge shout out of thanks to Nukemlee who took time out of her busy day to help me get a better feel for the people in Hana. Thank you! She also gave me some clues to help Sookie fit in better so she wouldn't stick out so badly as an outsider. Everything else is based on three days I spent there over my honeymoon and much of it is a gross glossing over of how it felt to me during that time. I'm writing it to be how I want it for Sookie, and I'm sure it's not a fair picture of real life there, but I took some creative license.

I'm trying a wordpress site as a place to put some pictures up for you all to see. I have some photos of the actual houses in Hana that I based Sookie's house on (from realtor. com). I'm new to the site, so it's not too nice yet, but I'll put a little effort into it when I can. www. choices2make. wordpress. com (without the spaces).


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: I was reviewing the last chapter for a detail when I saw that I had a few typos. Sorry. I'm having intermittent trouble with my new macbook and getting my spell check to work (ugh and tonight the screen kept blinking out on me-yikes). I'll go back and correct the mistakes. The errors couldn't possibly be due to my proofreading the day after our big super bowl party…no way.

This chapter is still introducing us to Hana and to Sookie/Jeanne's new friends. Next chapter we get deeper into the plot. I still promise that Eric and Sookie will get back together again, but a number of things have to happen before that will be possible. I originally planned for the intervening chapters to be only Sookie's POV, but I missed Eric too much so I'm putting a little of him or Pam into each chapter when it fits. Eric's part of this is a little violent- just a warning.

Chapter 15

Purpose

June, 2006

E~

I threw my head back and took an unnecessary breath, relishing the scent of blood and fear before making eye contact with my wounded prey. Victor lay at my feet where he belongs, his blood dripping from my blade and slowly being absorbed into the soil above my lover's empty grave. I had selected this as the site to take Victor down, maneuvered him here so that he would beg and bleed on this specific piece of earth. I was not disappointed.

What I wanted to do was to start squeezing him at his feet and wring his body out inch by inch until every drop of his blood was paid as debt for Sookie's pain. I was hard at the thought and I could almost hear the music of his screams, but I had other, just as satisfying plans for Victor and I needed answers. I would take my time with him.

The rest of the fight was over and we were decidedly victorious. I could feel Pam's excitement and bloodlust pouring through my body; once again, she made me proud. Of all my children, she was the most like me in nature and I had always enjoyed fighting at her side, so long as I knew that the odds were in our favor; that she would remain unscathed. Otherwise, my worry for her distracted me from the battle and it was best to leave her at home where I knew she would be furious but safe.

I smiled as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my supple leather gloves which I donned before gagging Victor with thin silver chains, making sure to pull tight enough to rip through the skin and muscle of his face, effectively removing his smug smile. He groaned and tried to say something around his gag, so I bent over until I was inches from him, "I'm sorry Victor, I didn't understand you," demeaning him even more with a gentle tone to my voice. He mumbled again, "Don't worry Victor, we will have a very long time for you to tell me everything…and you will tell me everything by the time I'm done with you Victor," I promised, allowing the threat to harden my tone.

Satisfied, I let him fall to the ground in a pathetic pile and turned to survey the scene. Our mock funeral had been an utter success and had worked to draw out many of my enemies. Piles of ashes were spread around the graveyard, at least six of them felled by my hand, and I felt my lips curve again as I looked down into the stunned pale blue face of Steve Newlin who had foolishly come with five of his Fellowship of the Sun followers to celebrate Sookie's death. His hatred of her had increased when Sookie had taken part in the arrest of his pathetic wife for the murder of another FOTS member. I was sorry I had not been able to dispatch him myself, but I had been busy working my way through Victor's guards.

Speaking of guards, I looked around and saw that the two Weres, who had fought by our side as payment for their failure to protect Sookie, were still alive. I nodded to them as I saw that they had slightly redeemed themselves by securing Sandra Pelt for 'further questioning'. I had originally planned on executing them in front of their pack, as would have been my right, but decided instead to keep the Longtooth pack on my side. I would need their support in the coming months and years and my actions would determine how trustworthy they would be. So I chose to allow them to fight and thus let their own skills determine whether they survived or were killed. Their debt was paid, but I would expect complete cooperation from the pack or I would be changing my mind.

I turned and took another unnecessary breath as I deliberately stepped on the cooling FOTS bodies on my way to a prone vampire form that was still moving slightly. I recognized the hair and clothing before I turned Bill over, revealing that he had been nearly cleaved in two at the waist and that one arm was detached and was tossed in the grass two feet away. He would have a long healing process, but unlike his injury from silver, he should achieve full strength eventually. I felt nothing for him besides irritation that he would be taking valuable resources from my kingdom as he healed once again, but I would allow it for Sookie's sake; she would have hated to see him like this.

Bill opened his eyes; they were glazed with pain as they met mine. I called Maxwell over to me to provide Bill with blood, but Bill shook his head, refusing the aid as he continued to stare at me, making his intent clear. I thought about the implications of what he was asking of me. Bill was loyal, although overly dramatic and difficult, and he was a huge moneymaker for the state. As King I would need him, but without Sookie, I doubted if he would even stay in Louisiana. From his past behavior, I didn't think that he would have the ability to tolerate being here without her for long. Bill appeared to know what I was thinking, "Maxwell will continue my work," he managed to say. I looked over at Maxwell who nodded at me; Bill's unspoken request had not been missed by my contingent of vampires.

A well-timed groan from my prisoner provided me with a potential solution, I walked back to Victor, grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him over to Bill smiling as I presented my gift to him. "Use Victor to heal and I promise that you will not be bound to him for long." I was sure that the main reason Bill didn't want to accept Maxwell's blood was that he was already bound to his sister thanks to Sookie, so he knew how undesirable it was to share blood with another vampire. "But understand well Bill Compton, that if you accept this healing, I will expect you to live in Louisiana or Oklahoma and continue your work on the database for at least the next fifty years."

Maxwell grinned at me as he gratefully forced Victor's wrist to Bill's mouth, relieved to have avoided giving another vampire his blood. I did not know if Bill would accept the healing with the price of his loyalty that I had demanded, but I called Indira and Palomino over to try and reattach Bill's arm and adjust his innards so his stomach could heal if he chose to drink.

The horror and disgust apparent in Victor's eyes was worth having a temporary invalid in my employ, but I wondered as I walked away to commune with Elisobeth and Freyda if I had done Bill a favor or just prolonged the torture of his unhappy life once again. The choice was up to him.

S~

"Jesus Christ Shepherd of Judea, that idiot nearly ran us off the road! Sorry baby," I crooned as I pried my fingers off the steering wheel of my brand new Toyota Prius and patted my dashboard lovingly.

Macey hooted out a laugh, "You're doing fine Jeanne, just relax and quit looking over the edge of the road or we'll end up halfway down the cliff in your new 'baby'."

"How in the world am I supposed to relax? This crazy road is about three feet wide, I can't see more than twenty feet ahead for all the turns and the stupid tourists are driving like maniacs in their rented convertibles. I had no idea that it was this hard to drive this road. Robert didn't have any problem on the way to West Maui yesterday or when he brought me here from the airport."

"That's because he's been driving this road since he was sixteen Jeanne. Why don't you pull over at the next scenic stop so we can get out and walk around a while. I think the place Mike says has the coconuts is right up here somewhere anyway." She leaned over to look at the odometer, "Yeah, it should be the next stop on the right."

I carefully made my way along the Hana Highway until I saw a small gravel area on the right, large enough for about three cars. I pulled over, turned the ignition off and sat staring at nothing but still seeing blind curve after blind curve flashing before my eyes.

Macey chuckled again, "You'd think that the woman who basically brought a seasoned Toyota salesman to his knees during negotiation for this car would be a bit tougher behind the wheel."

Oops, guilty as charged. I had used my telepathy to knock the chauvinistic pig of a salesman down a few pegs, but I didn't get anything from him that he wasn't authorized to offer us. I just made sure I was in charge of the conversation rather than him after he insulted my intelligence two times and kept calling me 'little lady'. There is nothing little about me and I let him know that, but it wasn't cheating…much. I smiled at her, "He did squirm a little didn't he?"

"Sure did, it was beautiful to watch. Come on, lets go see if we can find the stand, it should be right down that hill," Macey said as she swung open her door.

I gratefully climbed out of my new car, closed the door and stood back to admire my first new car ever, a silver 4-door hatchback. It was the perfect size for Hunter and I, and the Prius had come highly recommended by the locals when they heard I was looking for a fuel-efficient car.

"Come on Jeanne, stop preening. I want to have some time to relax at the waterfall before we have to get back on the road so we can get home before dark." That got me going. I had been very careful to be back in the cottage each night before sunset and Macey had been incredibly supportive and accepting of this without asking any questions. I just adored her, so much so that as soon as the inspection on the house and the other property buildings had passed with flying colors, I asked her if she would like to live in the guesthouse. She had jumped on me, wrapping her skinny legs around my waist when I took her to see her new home. She was so excited to move in and get ready to have Peter come out to stay with her, but we both needed a lot of supplies, so we planned our two day shopping trip to Lahaina.

Macey and I had been spending much of our free time together and occasionally with Christine, and I already considered her a valued friend despite the fact that she had made good on her hopes of wearing my clothing. Each morning, at the crack of dawn, I was rudely awoken by Macey banging on my lanai door, eager to borrow a shirt or a piece of jewelry. After a few days of my Macey cuckoo clock, I had given her a key so she could quietly enter so long as she promised to keep the key hidden in her locked cottage.

I'd never been good with my roommates randomly wandering into my room, but Macey was certainly doing her best to desensitize me, especially on the days that I opened my eyes to find a naked woman rifling through my closet. She had no boundaries about nudity…none, but for some reason, it didn't bother me too much.

I'd thought about asking her to respect my privacy and to dress herself before entering my room, that's certainly something I would have demanded of Amelia or Claude, but now those things didn't seem to matter as much to me anymore. In fact, I had lost a lot of my inhibitions about naked bodies after what Naeve and Lochlan had done to me. I'd had to take a good hard look at my myself and I'd ended up realizing that this was my body, no matter how it looked, it had gotten me through an incredibly terrible time and I couldn't harbor any shame about it anymore. I wasn't going to flaunt it, that wasn't who I was, but I just didn't view bodies the same way anymore, I saw them more as machines that either survived or broke, very little more. Mine had survived and I was proud of it.

Now, I had a friend who was comfortable with me and accepted me as I was, so who was I to ask her to change herself and her behaviors when they weren't hurting anyone? Maybe she had the same pride with her body since it was surviving a battle with a disease; I wouldn't ask her to hide herself.

We wandered off down a small pathway in the heavily wooded terrain and down a small incline to where a stream trickled merrily over smooth rocks. It hadn't been too rainy the past few days so the many waterfalls were merely trickles and the tourists we had seen had been disappointed, but it was still incredibly beautiful.

Set under a canopy of branches was a short table and a young man with messy brown hair and beard, brown shorts and a tan t-shirt. He was relaxing in a folding chair to some upbeat music I had heard once but couldn't identify. The table had a supply of coconuts each with pictures of Hawaiian scenes painted on them and a white space labeled 'To:' and 'From:'. Mike had told Macey about how excited his family had been when he mailed a coconut to them when he first arrived in Hana.

Macey started an easy conversation with the guy, she could talk comfortably with anyone, but I found it a little harder these days so I perused the coconuts. Hunter would love to receive one of these in the mail, but I didn't know where he was staying and wouldn't risk mailing anything to him anyway. I selected one with a turtle and decided to send it to our new home. He could get it when he arrived.

Macey identified the band as Rusted Root, telling us that she went to college north of Pittsburgh, PA where the band was from as she picked out a coconut to mail to Peter also at our home since he would be coming out soon too. She told us stories of spending 'Springfest', 'Summerfest' and New Year's Eve dancing to the band's fun music and I realized once again how limited my life had been by my telepathy. I wondered if I would have been able to relax and enjoy parties like Macey detailed if I had gone to college without my disability to hold me back. Hopefully Hunter would be able to control his telepathy enough to allow him the choice of which pathway he wanted to follow.

We said our farewells and continued deeper into the woods, following small signs to a waterfall. The density of the vegetation here amazed me; it felt almost as I imagined a rain forest would be like and the tall waterfall only reinforced my perception.

Macey and I chose large rocks and laid down on our stomachs for a rest. "Fifteen minutes, okay," I said to her with a smile, Macey could lay in the sun for hours just like me but it was late afternoon and we had a ways to go yet.

"You weren't in such a hurry to get going this morning, 'Miss. Don't talk to me until mid morning'."

I chuckled. Macey was up at the crack of dawn for her stretch and relaxation class and always gave me grief for being cranky in the morning. Old habits are hard to break.

"Hey speaking of mid-morning, are you going to come to my kick boxing class tomorrow, it's not until ten so you should be wide awake by then. You'll love it and you can beat up a few dummies while you're at it."

I groaned, "Sure, I'll give it a try, but don't expect much, I don't exercise…period."

Macey was quiet for a while and I could tell something was bothering her, so I let down my guard and listened to her. I know it was rude, but I hadn't done it much until now and I thought I might learn a little about this perceptive woman if I paid better attention. I shouldn't have done it; she was worrying about me. She had gotten a better view of my scars while we shared a room at the hotel and was incredibly concerned about me.

My tan was already fantastic and my scars, although still apparent, seemed to have faded a little bit and they were harder to see, even the unnatural dimples from the bites were a little better. I knew when she saw them and was ready with my car accident story, but she didn't say a word, at the time. I put my shields back up with a quiet sigh.

"Jeanne," she said, I knew what was coming.

"Yeah?"

"What had you so scared about those guys we saw at the hotel last night? I'd…like to know so I can be alert in case there's trouble," she said carefully.

Hmmm, I could see how she got to that from thinking about my scars, as I knew, she was perceptive. I had run into my first Weres at the hotel, two male cousins. I had initially been very nervous about being recognized by sight or scent and Macey had noticed that immediately even though she was walking ten feet in front of me carrying what looked like her body weight in toys. The minute I heard the snarled thoughts of the Weres, Macey had stopped and turned, looking at me with concern. How she knew something was wrong, I didn't know, but she was thinking that she had sensed that I was suddenly very upset. She put down her purchases and came over to me, placing her hands on my arms and looking up at me. "What's wrong?" she whispered, concern in her eyes.

It turned out that nothing was wrong, the Weres liked my scent, were actually really turned on by it (yuck), more like a vampire than a shifter, but they didn't peg me as part fairy or anything other than a sweet smelling human and we'd had to shut our door in their faces but there was no breech of my security, which relieved me beyond belief.

I'd never spoken about anything related to why I left Louisiana before, but the time was right to tell her a little. "I…left home to get away from certain individuals, to try and find a safe place to raise Hunter. The guys in the hotel reminded me of someone from back home and I freaked for a minute. There wasn't really anything to be afraid of, I just over-reacted."

"Are you alright?" she asked, looking quickly down at the scars on my legs. My heart skipped a beat, "Don't…I'm sorry," she said quickly as she reached over and squeezed my hand. "I'm here for you anytime if you need me. I'll do anything I can to help you and Hunter, but you don't have to talk. I don't want to know anything you aren't really ready to share anyway. I haven't met too many women who are as accepting of my differences and my life choices as you are so I really value your friendship. Please don't think I was pushing you." She was absolutely sincere.

I raised my eyebrows; she thought I was accepting? She was the one who was so easy and comfortable to be around. "Thanks, and I'm alright. I think this is the right place for us and I really value you too Macey," I said quietly as I laid my head back down on my hands and closed my eyes.

Easy. When had my life or a relationship with someone ever been easy before? I couldn't think of a time. I had been constantly strained during my childhood by the telepathy, my parent's death and my uncle's influence. My teenage years were blighted by the developing realization that I would never lead a normal life and with the difficulty I had of making and keeping friends. My last few years had been better…and worse. The silence and acceptance was incredible, I'd never belonged to any group as much as I belonged to the supe community even though I didn't truly fit in with any one group, but it was just too dangerous.

Was it possible that I could be happy here? Truly happy? People seemed to accept me so easily without wanting anything from me other than my company. Of course there was the expected animosity from some of the locals toward a stranger swooping in and buying up land, but I had hopes that I could become a part of the community. It really helped that my shields were working so well that I didn't even have the strain of blocking thoughts out all the time and so there was little drama.

Could life be this comfortable? It was amazing to think that Hunter and I could live a safe and quiet life here…that we could be…almost normal. Could that actually be possible? I certainly hoped so.

0-0-0-0-0

I closed on the house and we officially moved in the same day. I would be leaving to pick Hunter up in two days, and I was buzzing with the anticipation of his arrival. I decided to meet Hunter and Remy in Chicago to make it harder for Remy to guess where we were going and luckily there was a direct flight from Honolulu to and from Chicago. I booked a flight that got me into O'Hare at 6:00AM, just before sunrise and that left for Hawaii four hours later at 10:00AM, it was the best I could do. It would be a lot of traveling for both of us, but I was betting on us being able to sleep on the long flight.

My hop to the big island of Hawaii was unsettling; the closer the plane got to the island, the more I wanted to go back to Maui. I began to feel a little weak and ill, but all my trepidation faded just minutes into the flight to Chicago. I guess it was a bit of anxiety about leaving my safe haven.

On the flight, I thought about the time I had spent with Macey, actually enjoying her classes. I found that I had a lot of stamina and that the movement really helped me vent some of my stress and grief, especially the kickboxing.

I had almost talked myself out of going to the class but Macey sent Mike down to get me so that I didn't skip. His eyes twinkled as he pulled me out of the cottage and walked me to the golf cart. "Your chariot awaits," he joked, throwing a towel at me and handing me a bottle of water, "You'll need these," he winked.

"Great," I groaned. I only really liked to sweat when I was sun bathing…or during sex I thought ruefully.

I loved it. The class was fantastic. Macey was an incredible teacher and helped me learn all the steps without making me feel like an idiot. By the second half of the class, I was visualizing Victor or Felipe's heads when I was kicking and Naeve and Lochlan when I was punching. I could actually feel the stress leaking out of my mind and body with each blow. Every time I made an effort, I thought to myself, this is for Gran or Lafayette or Claudine. The list went on and on, and included my living and dead loved ones, and by the end of the class, I felt as though I had sought out and received a tiny piece of justice due to me and people I had cared about who were taken from me by anger, hatred or greed. Having that little bit of perceived power, although it wasn't real, healed something within me just a tiny bit. I had a lot of work to do, to heal completely, but at least I felt like I was on the right path. The class ended suddenly and I found myself standing in the middle of the emptying room wanting…needing more.

Macey finished talking to the guests and then came over to me, "I have another class in five minutes if you wanna stay, you look like my horse used to when I would only take her out for a short run when she wanted more." She smiled at me and went to set up the music for her next class. I stayed and loved that too, impressing myself with my endurance and coordination, I'd never been able to do anything like this before. I was hardly tired at the end of the second hour and was determined to attend as many classes as I could each day. I might even try going out for a run (gasp).

Only one thing bothered me during the class. Partway through the zumba class, Macey coughed a few times. I hadn't heard her cough before, and was concerned by the deep whooping sound she made. She coughed so hard that her face turned red and her muscular belly bulged. It only lasted a few seconds, but it made me nervous about her health. She couldn't possibly be actively sick, I reassured myself as I watched her slide through the zumba steps with ease, shouting out encouragements to the rest of us.

I waited nervously for Hunter and Remy near the check-in counter for the wrong airline and I heard Hunter long before I saw him. He was bursting with excitement and was absolutely ready for this trip and the changes it would bring. Remy was grimly determined to see his son off and to move on with his life. His attitude had not changed in the time I had been away; if anything he was more resolved to be free from Hunter. No wonder the poor boy was excited to be with me. I sent him a mental greeting to let him know I was here and just as excited to see him and reminded him to keep quiet about our destination and our new names.

We were together for less than five minutes, just long enough to give Remy his letter from Mr. Cataliades and accept Hunter's small suitcase. Remy tried to give me money, but I refused, telling him that we were well funded and to use the money to start his new life. I didn't want anything from him except for Hunter. Harsh I know, give me your son and go away, but he had made his choice and I only cared about Hunter at this point. I cringed as Remy said a stilted goodbye to his only son. I could see Hunter recoil as he hugged his Dad, the brief touch amplified the horrible thoughts Remy was having toward Hunter and then he moved quickly to my side and took my hand. I could feel his immediate and substantial relief.

I looked deep into Remy's eyes, so disappointed with how he had handled this situation. "Forget you ever knew us Remy, move on with your new life." I nodded at Remy as he gave a weak shoulder shrug and turned away, looking a little dazed. We stood hand in hand and watched as he walked out of sight clutching his envelope from Mr. Cataliades.

Hunter pulled on my hand so hard as he jumped up and down that I stumbled, "So can I talk about it now, Aunt Soo…I mean…well, what do I call you? I know your new name is Jeanne and that you will be telling everyone that you are my Mom, but what do I call you?"

The answer to this innocent question held so many implications for our lives, I had to take a deep calming breath before answering. I led him over to a quiet corner so we could talk privately and I sat at eye level with him. He looked good, rested and well fed; I never doubted that Remy would care for him physically. It was his heart I was worried about and I hoped my answer wouldn't upset him any. "I guess that maybe it would be best for you to call me Mom, if you're comfortable with that, I know it's strange but…"

"No, I like it," he said quickly and I could see that this was what he had been wanting me to say, "and I guess it would be really weird for a kid to call his Mom by her first name anyway, right?"

"Yeah, it would," I said, smiling at this amazingly bright child who had weathered something no child should have to face and come out whole on the other side.

I squeezed his hands and smiled at him, feeling my heart warm at the sight of his beautiful brown eyes.

"So we're going to Hawaii!" he whooped, I stood up and we began walking to the check in counter. "I looked Hawaii up on a map, it's really far away. Is it a big island? It looks tiny on the map. How long will we fly for? Dad and I were on a plane for more than two hours, we were staying in Dallas. Our plane had TVs on the seats in front of us! Will this plane have TVs too? I really liked that, I got to watch the Simpsons, there was a really funny episode where Bart…"

Hunter babbled on and on as we walked, his hand holding tight to mine, not waiting for responses. I could hear from some of his thoughts that he had been very lonely for the past two weeks and he was so happy to have someone to talk to who didn't make him feel like he was a bad boy. I let him chatter away happily as we checked in and made our way to the gate.

Hunter was bouncing all over the place by the time we boarded and he really went crazy when he saw how much space he had in first class. I made sure he didn't have to go to the bathroom before I buckled him in, got him a juice and continued to listen to his stories about his last few weeks in a hotel. I was sad to hear that most of what he had to say had to do with shows he watched on TV and very little about things he did with his Dad, but I was convinced that he had been better there than he would have been with me, especially that first week.

After we took off, Hunter slapped on his headphones and settled down to watch a Harry Potter movie. I didn't think it would be too violent for him so I allowed it and sat back to relax. Hunter fell asleep part way through the movie and I put the armrest up between us, allowing him more space. Within minutes, he was curled up with his head on my lap. I was reflexively concerned with the intimacy, but a voice in my head reminded me that I was now his parent, his…mother. I was the only caregiver in his life now and he would depend on me to provide him not only with safety and a home but with unconditional love and support.

My heart quaked and I gasped for a breath to bolster my courage. What a responsibility. Could I nurture this child fully, give him enough of myself to help him grow and develop into a confident young man? The part of me that doubted my ability kept being nudged to the side each time he curled deeper into my lap and each time I let my fingers stroke his soft, dark brown hair. I had known since I met with Remy in the park that Hunter needed me, but I hadn't understood what that meant until right this very moment. I also had greater hope that it could work out now that I was feeling more convinced of our safety and inclusion into our new town.

This would work out. I knew we could make it happen. I had to make it work.

When we landed in Hana, we were greeted not only by Macey as expected but also by Mike, Christine, Ian, Bette and a man I didn't know who had long wavy black hair and a kind face. I listened to him since he was holding Macey's hand. His name was Larry and he thought in pictures, the most beautiful pictures I had ever gleaned from a mind. He was imagining playing outside with a faceless young blond boy, sitting on a bench in my garden holding Macey's hand, having a barbeque with myself, Hunter, Macey and that same boy. I had no idea how he fit into Macey's life, but I wanted to know him better. Hunter looked up at me and said, "I like him," thinking of the new man with awe.

"Me too," I said quietly. I gave Macey a big smile and a hug, whispering that she would have to tell me all about Larry later. I was very curious.

Hunter jumped right into the mix with all the new people and asked if he could ride back to the house for the party with Mike. Everyone looked surprised, "How did you know about the party?" Bette asked, "It was supposed to be a surprise."

I quickly covered Hunter's mistake, "Oh, I told him that we would be having a 'party' with Macey when we got home. There's a real party?" I asked, trying to sound surprised.

"Yeah, we wanted to give Hunter a real Hawaiian welcome," said Ian, nudging Hunter with his elbow.

"Ooh, a party," screeched Hunter, "I can't wait!"

We had a wonderful late afternoon cookout and then Macey ushered us all into the house before nightfall, stating that Hunter had to get used to his new home and get some rest. I was so grateful to her for making the transition easy and for keeping me relaxed so I didn't worry Hunter.

Later that night, Hunter crawled sleepily into his new bed and gave me a hug and a kiss goodnight. I told him that I loved him and to come get me if he had any problems.

I couldn't sleep well that night, realizing that I had my…son sleeping in the room down the hallway from me. He was my son and would be for as long as we both survived this crazy life. It was an amazing thought and my emotions flickered between fear of the responsibilities and joy at the idea of being a part of a family again.

Hunter settled in seamlessly for the first day and night, but I awoke the next night at 2:30 am to the sound of him crying. He was desperately missing the father he had loved and who had loved him. I rushed to the room and sat on the side of his bed, stroking his soft hair.

"Mom," he said, his voice was uncertain and loaded with emotion. My heart broke open after hearing just that one word and I swear, I felt my heart literally grow larger to wrap itself around this little boy as I realized just how much I loved him. I had no idea that I had such a capacity to love; it was a foreign feeling to me although I had loved deeply before…this was somehow very different from anything I had felt before.

I placed my hand on his cheek, trying to convey my love to him. "I'm here Hunter," I said in an equally quiet voice.

He paused, bit his lip and fingered the edge of his pirate blanket before looking up at me. His deep brown eyes, so much like Hadley's were shimmering with tears. "Where's Daddy? Why doesn't he want to be with me anymore? Did Jesus mess up when he made me?"

_Oh Baby_, I thought and I was thrown back into my own emotional memories of the loss of my parents and before that, of their inability to understand and accept me. I paused, wondering if I should protect Hunter from my memories, but decided that I could and should share my experiences with him. I showed him how sad and confused I was because of the way they felt about me. I shared how I felt after they were gone and how I thought that maybe I was to blame, that maybe I had done something wrong. I also replayed some of Gran's kind words of love and support telling me how, even though they hadn't understood me, were even scared of me, that they still had loved me very much.

I finally spoke. "God made you exactly how he wanted you to be Hunter. You are perfect to him. Don't you ever think that anything is _wrong_ with you. You and I are just special. We have a gift that most people don't have and can't understand, even our families." I paused and kissed his forehead. "Hunter, I spent much of my life, until the last few years thinking that something was wrong with me too. Now I know how special I am, how special we both are." How strange it was that it took vampires to show me that I had value and that my Gran's words, which had been so hollow without the support of the world around us when she had said them, were actually the truth.

Hunter didn't seem able to absorb much of what I had said; he clearly had his mind on other things. He scrunched his face and said quickly with a sniffle, "Daddy was scared and angry after I saw the vampire at the mall."

"Yes, he was, he was especially scared that you might get hurt by the vampires because they know about us. They know better than anyone else how very unique and valuable you are," I stroked his soft face. "Vampires are able to tell that you and I are different and some of them will try to use us or hurt us to get us to help them with our telepathy, even if we don't want to help them."

Hunter had grown still, his brow furrowing as I spoke. Then a look crossed his face that I could only interpret as defiant. He said with a stronger voice, "I liked being near that vampire at the store, I couldn't hear her and it felt good. It was like being near you when you close your mind. She didn't hurt me or make me do anything bad."

Oh, the allure that vampires were to a telepath. I leaned over to kiss his forehead again, "I know honey, I feel the same way, that's why I had to leave too. They feel so good to us, and some of them are nice, but they know we're different. Hunter, I tried to live with them in my life, but I kept on getting hurt and every night, my life just got more and more dangerous." I sighed, "Hunter honey, I am so very happy and lucky that you were willing to come with me so we could both escape together. I need you to help me too, you make me so happy and brave."

I touched his cheek again, and waited until he was looking me straight in the eyes to say, "You and I have always been family and now we are an even better team. We will get though this together as a family and we will take care of each other. We are going to make friends and have fun here in our new home, you will develop your shields to be like mine and go to school and we will both learn how to take care of each other and ourselves. Is that something you want to do Hunter?" He gave a little nod and a small smile crept over his face and then disappeared quickly. He nodded again and the smile returned, marred only partially by the weight of the worries that he would need to carry all his life.

_I love you Hunter, _I thought at him. _Let's plan something fun to do tomorrow, think of what you'd like to do or see, okay?_ The worry faded from his face and was replaced by a true smile. As I left the room, I saw flashes of the horses we had seen as we drove to the hotel that morning.

We were going to be okay, both of us would heal and be alright, I told myself with a mental shove at my resolve.

Now that I had a greater purpose, I would make sure of it.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Hi all- what a mess fanfiction has been this week. I am so grateful to those of you who have found a window of opportunity and left me feedback about the last chapter. The next few chapters are a deviation from most of the story so I need your feedback to see how you like this break in the action. I promise that once things get rolling again, that it will make the first 13 chapters seem calm and angst free. :)

-Eric's part of this story is more violent, so skip it if you don't like that kind of thing.

-A few of the reviewers (thank you!) mentioned Remy from last chapter. There is more to Remy's story to come much later. Plus there were two important clues in Sookie's short interaction with him. I've been dropping very subtle (and some not so subtle) clues all the time as to what is going on with Sookie and with the larger picture. Some you might be able to pick them up with careful reading and others you wouldn't probably catch until after you get further along into the story.

Chapter 16

Legends

Macey's Peter arrived a week later with his grandparents. Peter was as fair as Hunter was dark, and they got along together like a house on fire. They acted more like brothers than friends, frequently sleeping over in the other's room and ending up in skirmishes over games or favored toys, but the arguments never lasted very long before they were back causing trouble together again. They kept a bike or a scooter at each house and would ride to the other or meet in the middle after communicating on walkie-talkies they kept on the lanai of each house.

After a few weeks, I became aware that Hunter was beginning to open up some with Peter and that he had told his friend about hearing other's thoughts. I watched and listened carefully, but Peter handled this information with the same poise that his mother had handled all of my oddities. Their friendship never faltered so long as Hunter refrained from cheating in games with his telepathy, when he was playing against Peter at least. The pair of them seemed to want to keep it as their secret and as far as I could tell, Peter hadn't even told his mother and had no plans to do so in the near future.

What was it about this family that made them more accepting of the differences in others? Was it that Macey had an illness that made her unique and so Peter understood about differences? Maybe it was that they were both raised by a single parent, again isolating them as being different. Whatever it was, Hunter and I were both incredibly lucky to have such welcoming and open-minded friends.

I tried to carefully impress on Hunter the need to keep our abilities a secret, for our safety, but at the same time, allowed him to share this part of himself with a good friend. It was a hard line to walk; raising a child to be incredibly careful and secretive, but not to view himself as broken or something deviant that needed to be hidden as I had often been made to feel. I would be more aggressive in my demands for secrecy as he aged, but I didn't think it was too much of a risk right now to be sharing this part of himself with one friend.

I know that I had been told not to trust anyone, but how could Hunter or I live without trusting anyone? We weren't vampires, we're humans…sort of…maybe. I just don't think that life would be worth living if I had to isolate myself in that way, and I know I wouldn't be able to force that upon Hunter, it would be too cruel. So I just had to trust our instincts and keep checking the thoughts of everyone in our lives on a regular basis to ensure our safety.

We often had Macey, Larry and Peter over for dinner and a movie and I got to know Larry a bit more during these times, he was too much of an unknown to me.

What really caught me off guard and made me need to explore him further was his complete acceptance of Hunter and I from the word 'go'. Of course we didn't seem so different on the surface, but after spending time with us, most everyone began to notice that we were unique, as people in Bon Temps learned just as quickly.

Larry, it turned out, was the most tolerant man I think I had ever met, tolerant almost to a fault. It seemed, by his demeanor and the ridiculous hours that he kept at work, that he allowed anyone to walk all over him. It wasn't until I took the time to get to know him better that I began to understand what drove him.

Larry was a doctor at the Hana Health Urgent Care Center on Hana Highway, just about seven miles away from our house. He frequently rode his bike to and from work wearing his scrubs or jeans and t-shirt and always the same ratty sneakers. He told me that he had been drawn to work there when he passed through the area while backpacking along the Hana Highway. He had finished up his residency at John's Hopkins and decided to take six months to relax in Hawaii. He ended up living for two months in a small commune of five people along the Hana highway and then fell in love with Hana.

He had been staying with a friend he had met on his travels and working at the Health Center until he found Macey at the Hana Fresh Farm market. They hit it off right away and he moved his one bag of belongings and his bike into the guesthouse the next day.

"There are only two other doctors caring for the population here and the neglect shows, especially with the Native Hawaiian population. There's a lot of reliance on traditional medicine, which is excellent, but won't really help a broken leg or kidney disease and there is such an amazing need for patient education. I love that here I can go into the community and into the houses and actually make a difference by teaching people how to take care of themselves in their own homes, I could never do that back in Baltimore in the same capacity. It's much simpler here, and also more complex due to the traditional values."

I was appalled, "There are only three doctors serving the whole area?"

"Yes, and the medical center is only a few years old and it's poorly funded. A lot of the funds designated for health care have to go to caring for the growing population of elders who are house bound. It's a big problem," he said gently "especially since many of the younger generation have left the area to find work and cheaper housing. Plus, I'm the only doctor who actually lives here full time, the others are shipped in temporarily from other areas, so they aren't really as invested as they could be. You can't blame them, it's just not the best situation," he said with a lazy shrug from his reclined position on the couch. If Larry was sitting down, you could bet that he was resting. Sometimes he had full conversations with his eyes closed, taking the time to recharge himself.

I looked a little closer at Larry, his eyes were tired and he had grey hair weaving through the long black locks that were messily thrown over his shoulder. I realized that his hair was probably left long out of laziness rather than for fashion as I had originally assumed, he was not someone who worried about his appearance. The men I had been hanging out with were almost metrosexuals (a term Amelia taught me) compared to Larry, he was very natural and he had me thinking more about my greater purpose in my new life.

0-0-0-0-0

November, 2006 (Departure from Bon Temps + 5 months)

Ian stopped me one day when I was leaving the health center at the hotel where I had taken my usual three classes in a row with Macey. At the end of my classes, Macey had carefully explained to me that my exuberance was starting to unnerve some of the clients who were looking for a relaxing workout. What she really meant but was too kind to say was that I was too aggressive, so I needed to find something else to vent my emotions and this unfamiliar need I had for physical activity.

I didn't mind Macey pointing this out to me, in fact I was aware that I was beginning to stand out in the classes, especially now that Macey was pregnant and just starting to show and so taking things a tiny bit slower in general. I needed more. My body was never satisfied with the workouts I got in the classes or on my daily runs thorough the town. I couldn't believe how physical I was becoming, but it sure felt good. I could bound up the stairs like never before and play football, soccer and baseball with Hunter and Peter for hours without tiring, but I needed a greater challenge.

I had heard that some of the local guys took boxing with Ian so I was happy when he called me over to him after my final classes just outside the main lobby where he was chatting with Bette. I had realized pretty quickly that Bette was the woman I spoke with the two times I had called the hotel from Bon Temps, she did all the reception front desk responsibilities during the day. She had a major crush on Ian, but was too shy to tell him, so I hadn't planned on interrupting until he called me over.

I gave Bette a shy smile to apologize and said, "Hey you two, what's up Ian?"

"Jeanne, my tutu, my grandmother, a Pili Mua, um, an elder relative, has asked to meet the haole or the visiting blond Caucasian," he said with a smile, putting on the Hawaiian charm for me.

"Hmmm, a summons by the local elder, should I be concerned?" I asked jokingly, but inside I was nervous, I had been summoned to see too many 'elders', (Eric, Victor, Sophie Anne, Niall) to be comfortable with the idea.

Bette's laugh tinkled out merrily, "Your use of the word summoned is really appropriate, you might fit in here after all Jeanne. Pua is a village elder, a healer and the closest thing to ali'I or royalty we have here in Hana."

Uh oh, a healer…I wondered if she was a witch, this could be really bad. I bit my lip anxiously.

"Don't worry Jeanne, she asks to meet anyone who moves to the area permanently, she doesn't care about the visitors, but people planning on staying usually make a trip over to her place to introduce themselves to her."

I couldn't be rude; these are local customs, just like offering someone a drink when they visited my house. "I'd be honored to visit her, when is she available?"

"She'll be in all day today and tomorrow," he said.

"I have time this afternoon before Hunter gets home." I said trying to hide my nerves.

"I'll tell her to expect you, mahalo Jeanne," he said with a sympathetic smile; I guess he saw my nerves after all.

"Ian, I was interested in exploring boxing lessons with you, I hear you teach. Would you be willing to take me on as a student? The classes here are great, but I need more," I said, making sure to have my inflection be very businesslike to ensure that Bette didn't get the idea that I was hitting on Ian.

"I've taught a few women. My gym is right down the street from my grandmother's house. Why don't you stop by once you finish with her and we can do a short training session to see if you like it. I'll have a few neighborhood guys over already so it would be a good time for you to test it out."

"Sounds great Ian, thanks." I was a little nervous about trying it out in front of a bunch of guys, but if they were there a lot I should make sure I could be comfortable before I committed to sessions with Ian."

"By the way, I have some Hawaiian words I'd like to have translated, could you help me out with that?" Hearing him speak Hawaiian reminded me of the letter from my ancestor that I wanted to translate.

"Sure Jeanne, but my grandmother would be better, why don't you take the words to her when you see her today?"

Maybe, I thought as I said my farewells and rushed home to shower before grabbing a bite to eat and making my way over to the address Ian had given me for his grandmother. Her place was inland on a meandering road and was in a quiet neighborhood of homes similar to the typical house we had in Bon Temps, nothing fancy, but nice enough. Her driveway was marked as Ian had told me it would be, by a Green Bay Packers flag on the mailbox. Again the idea made me smile.

I parked in the driveway and walked to the front door, admiring the flower gardens that were growing in a riot of colors. I had dressed in a nice below the knee length tan skirt and silk navy blue top with my workout shorts and tank underneath so that I wouldn't have to find a place to change when I went to Ian's. I usually dressed casually, but I wanted to show her respect by wearing nicer clothes, it was what Gran would have expected of me.

Before I could knock on the door, a strong voice rang out from inside, "Let yourself in, haole, no need to stand around on doorsteps all day."

I took a deep breath and opened the screen door. It squeaked noisily so I slowly closed it, anticipating that it might slam behind me.

"Finally, someone with some sense, not letting the door slam, you must have been raised right," the voice squawked from the front room. I removed my shoes in the entryway, followed the voice and found Pua sitting in a large wicker chair with a full cushion patterned in a pink plumeria pattern. She appeared to be in her sixties, much younger than I had expected and had her graying hair pulled back from her temples, with the rest flowing down her back. Her skin was a rich brown and was wrinkled at her eyes and around her mouth.

She motioned to a chair facing her and I sat, feeling like I was visiting a state dignitary. She studied me thoroughly, beginning at my necklace and then focusing on my eyes. "You are the haole who moved into the Porter's old place," she stated flatly.

"Yes, ma'am," I responded.

"You moved here from the mainland and plan to stay to raise your son," again another statement.

"Yes ma'am."

"Why?" she demanded, boring her eyes into mine so intensely that I momentarily wondered if she could hear my thoughts.

"We have no other family, Hunter recently lost his father and I received a gift from my grandmother, so we came out here for a fresh start," I offered my typical story.

She frowned, "No," she said flatly.

"I'm sorry?" I asked, starting to feel nervous, was she going to be poking holes in my story?

"I said, 'no', that is not the reason you came here," she stated. I was getting very uncomfortable.

"Why do you think I came out here?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

"You are running from something," she stated simply." I blinked, but kept my face expressionless, but my heart began to pound in my chest.

She held out her hands, it was a demand, not a request. I reluctantly placed my hand in hers; she clasped it tightly, closed her eyes and focused. I needed to know what she was thinking, so I lowered my shields. As I lowered them, Pua gasped and held my hand tighter. She was thinking that I had a distinct feel of magic and power about me, but she wasn't able to sense anything until I made some sort of shift. Then it was as though she could feel floodgates open and she saw the life forces of nature flow in and out of me. She knew I was different but she didn't know why or how. This was so not good.

She looked up at me and nodded and then released my hand from her tight grasp. "Come with me," she said and got up from her chair with a slight grunt. I followed her reluctantly into a room that must be where she practiced her healing arts. There was a raised table with a blanket draped over it and a chair nearby. Bottles of herbs and flowers stood on a bookshelf.

Pua led me to the far end of the room to a large painting of a beautiful, but fearsome looking woman. She was painted in varying shades of red and black and had a rod of some sort in her left hand. She had long dark, waving hair and she wore a cloth that tied over one shoulder.

In the background were volcanoes spewing the same colors of red into the sky and she seemed to be wading through rivers of red lava. She carried in her right hand a clear egg shaped rock with the form of a crouching child inside.

It was a disturbingly beautiful painting, but I didn't see what it had to do with anything.

"This is a painting of Pele the goddess of fire and volcanoes," okay, and that is relevant because…? She continued, "You wear Pele's tears, one embraced inside the other." She used a stocky finger to point to my pendant. My hand instinctually came up to grasp the gem, 'Pele's tears?'

She nodded at my action, "The green peridot is a volcanic gem that is formed deep within the fires of the earth." She brushed my hand aside and pointed at the pendant, "This is an exceptionally large and powerful gem." She continued, "Peridot has great healing power and can bring about wealth and growth."

She moved her finger slightly to indicate the dark circle suspended within the gem. "This is also Pele's tear, it is made of tiny bits of lava spewed into the sky that come together to form these drops of volcanic glass," she looked back at me to make sure I was paying attention and then back at the necklace. "I believe that these wisps here are supposed to be fern tendrils, some outstretched and some still curled, rather than the smoke that they appear to be at first glance.

She moved to the side of the painting and sat on a tall stool, "Are you familiar with Pele?" she asked.

"I've heard her name, but that's about it," I answered.

She pursed her lips in thought, "As I said, Pele is the goddess of fire and volcanoes. She is the daughter of the earth mother and the sky father. Legend has it that Pele was born to be a water goddess like her sister, but she was drawn to the fire of the volcanic land and so chose to become a fire goddess. Her sister Namakaokaha'I, a water goddess hated her choice and her careless actions that damaged their homeland with volcanic fire, and so she chased Pele and her siblings from island to island until Pele found Mauna Loa, the tallest land where her sister's tsunami's could not reach her. In her anger, Pele sent fire spewing into the air in the form of lava and so created the island of Hawaii. None could control Pele's destructive anger and fire, not her sister or Poliahu and the other snow or sky goddesses, until they combined their efforts.

Water and sky, tsunami and snow forever work together to cool Pele's fire. Once Pele's anger is controlled by the goddesses, she always regrets her temper, she then seeds the land with ferns and beautiful flowers to repair the damage she caused. Neither of the goddesses will ever win the battle, they are destined to forever hold one another in delicate balance, their perpetual battles creating the beautiful island you see here. The fern shown in your pendant is the traditional symbol of Pele's ongoing battle with the goddesses."

She tilted her head to study me some more, "Pele was renowned for her fiery temper, but also for her passion and for correcting her tempestuous acts with kindness and gifts of bounty. She taught us that all fiery eruptions, volcanic, emotional or situational are followed by new life, growth and change."

I was shocked, my pendant was made of Pele's tears? My ancestor had known I was coming here? What did it mean? Was this a symbol of the fiery eruptions in my life that occurred during the last two years of my time in Bon Temps? Did it also symbolize that I should have hope that new life and change will occur now in my life? I sure hoped so, but my experiences had taught me that it is usually what I don't want that happens when I was involved with the supernatural world, so I had little faith for anything else.

"So you believe that Pele actually existed?" I asked without really thinking.

Pua looked at me with a disbelieving glance and laughed derisively at me, shaking her head. "Yes, and you should too," she said firmly. "Pele's life holds many parallels to yours, she was expected to be one thing, a water goddess, but found her passion in fire. She was chased from her home and sought refuge on Hawaii. On her journey, she carefully protected her younger sibling who she carried under her arm in an egg."

Okay, I saw some of the parallels, but how did she? Pua continued, "As I said, I know you are running from something, and you have brought your young man with you. I have met him and I know that he is not your blood son. He is your Hanai, a child you will raise as your own." Again I was shocked, how did she know this? She had the ability to sense the power of my telepathy although she didn't know what the power was, so what was she and would she share this knowledge with others? Were Hunter and I in danger? My anxiety level began to creep up and my urge to flee began to diminish my ability for rational thought.

Pua put her hand on mine and I jolted. "Relax, you are not in danger here. You may be running, but like Pele, you have found a land that will protect you and allow you to grow and change to meet the demands of your life."

I was still anxious, a slight tremor running through my body, she squeezed my hand harder to get my attention. "Look at the gift your ancestor gave to you." When I continued to stare blindly at her, she snapped, "Look at it."

I picked the gem up in my left hand and looked down at it. "This," she pointed a finger at the combination of the Pele's tears, "this, does not happen in nature and cannot be reproduced without flaw. This was made by the gods and was given to your family as a gift. There is a reason for everything. You must trust that. Have trust in the gods and in yourself."

"But I'm Christian," I said in a small voice.

Pua burst out in a laughing fit, "So am I," she said, still chuckling something about narrow-minded mainlanders, "it's like the debate between creationism and evolution. Did God really have to snap his fingers or could he have taken his time in creating the life of this world. Don't you think that God would have sought out some help perhaps in the form of the gods for creating the world? Christians believe he used angels and also his own son to bring about his desired ends, so why not gods? Because they have power too? God isn't intimidated by the paltry power of the gods, this should be easier for humans to understand as more and more of the supernatural community comes out of hiding. God isn't the only one with power; he made a variety of beings with power including the gods.

"The biggest problem people have with understanding the god's role is that civilizations were familiar with them before they understood that God existed. They had no choice but to worship the gods as they did, it was just part of the evolution of our understanding of God and his heavenly host. Plus people have had trouble with the name and categorization of the gods that was passed down from before Christ's time and before the Bible was written…'gods'. This just shows humanity's lack of creativity and understanding in naming supernatural deities and creatures. If they had another name, like angels, perhaps things would be different," she said with a shrug.

"Many Hawaiians had an easy time of accepting Christianity and integrating it into our culture because we already prayed to our akua's, our major spirits or gods as you call them and to our 'aumakua's our ancestral spirits to help us pass down our mana, our familial life force or talents; our individual powers and abilities. So when Christians came and told us to pray to a God who was also known as our "Father" and told us to "honor thy parents all the days of thy life," it was easy for us because we were already doing that by praying to our ancestral sprits and the major spirits, akua's or 'gods'. Many of our royalty could trace a direct genetic line to one akua or another."

She almost lost me when she said the word, 'mana', it was one of the words in the letter from my ancestor, but she continued. "My mana is healing, so I pray to the 'aumakuas in my family line who were healers and my akua is the goddess Hina, she is the source of my family's healing skills. My family has emulated Hina's abilities and prayed to her over the generations that she allow her healing powers to flow down our hereditary connection from her to each of her ancestors. My mana is strong because of my deep connection to my 'aumakuas and akua.

"It is natural to combine the Christian faith and respect for your family line and spirits of family long gone from this world. Not just the last few generations you may have heard of or known personally, but the ones who came hundreds of generations before you as well, all the way to the beginning. It should not conflict with your Christian belief system."

I didn't know what to make of her theory; it was so disconnected from anything I had ever thought of before. I gave her a small smile to try and appease her. She wasn't fooled.

"It will take you time, but you will understand." She reached over her shoulder to the full bookshelf and pulled down a beautiful white bound book with swirling brown letters and handed it to me. "Read this and then visit with me again, we will talk more then." The book was titled, "The Sacred Texts." I felt as though I was holding a bible or a Koran or something. I was nervous about taking it home.

"It won't bite you," Pua teased me and lightly smacked me on the shoulder. "Take your time, I think you will enjoy it and learn a lot about Hawaii and her people in the process."

I nodded at her, "Thank you." I just didn't have anything to say about everything she had told me, so I placed the book on the table next to me and focused on a bigger, more tangible concern. I was still tense from when she mentioned that she knew that Hunter was not my son so I cleared my throat a little, "Will you tell anyone, I mean about Hunter?" I listened to her thoughts as she spoke to be sure she spoke the truth.

"I will not tell anyone, it has no impact on anyone but the two of you. Hanai are common in this area, but if you want to keep it your private business, then I will respect your wish. I will also keep private my understanding of your pendant, although Ian also knows, he understood its significance the minute he saw it."

I nodded, "Thank you," I said as a shiver of relief ran the length of my body, "privacy is essential to Hunter and I."

I heard from her thoughts that she didn't like that I felt at risk, and wanted to find a way to help protect us. I was cautiously touched by her protective instinct toward us, but very little good had ever come to me from people wanting to protect me, I was better off left alone.

"Ian says you are thinking about training with him," she said. I nodded. "I would like for you to train with me also." I frowned. What could I possibly learn from her that would help me protect Hunter?

"As I said, peridot is known to have healing power. I believe that you were given this pendant for a reason and that you need to explore your ability to heal, both yourself and others."

Both myself and others…how did she know? I had noted over the last five months that I was healing faster than usual from small scrapes and cuts, but I figured it was the remaining bits of Eric's blood I had in my system that was healing me, although I hadn't had any vampire blood in almost five months…could I be developing healing abilities?

I was definitely changing, getting stronger and faster, I hadn't even had my period since I left home, but still I couldn't believe that I could actively heal myself, and I certainly couldn't heal other people. "I'm not a healer or a doctor, I don't see…"

She interrupted, "That is not what I said. I said that you may have untapped healing power. You will need to explore that more fully to reach your potential."

That statement brought back what my ancestor had said in the letter she had sent to me via Mr. Cataliades encouraging me to learn from others, so I nodded. I would pursue this line of self-exploration. If I did have the potential for developing healing skills, they would sure come in handy if I ever had to fight a supe again.

"Thank you, I would be honored," I said and she smiled at me and gave me a small slap on the forehead with her fingertips. "We will start tomorrow."

Before I left, I had her translate the Hawaiian words I had pulled from my ancestor's letter. When I got home I read the letter in it's entirety for the first time. It read:

'Kaikamahine- (Daughter)

I am very proud of you, daughter of mine, as you have begun your journey, Pa (the Beginning) toward Mana (Power). Have caution, trust none, but learn from all. Grow; expand yourself and your abilities. When your kupuna (ancestors) who help you tonight come for you, go, they have much knowledge and their home is a pu'uhonua (refuge) for us. Use the wealth provided to protect and aid you and Jonathan on your journey. Wear the pendant always, and I will come to you in time. I love you both, my hanau. (Offspring)

Kou Makuahine (your mother)

No fucking way! My mother? What the hell? And why would I need to go to this refuge? I was safe and realtively happy here, why would I need a refuge? Oh crap, this could only mean one thing, if a powerful supernatural being was telling me to hide…I would be in deep shit sometime in the near future. I would need to take some more steps to protect Hunter and myself from whatever was lurking out there.

E~

I awoke the night after the battle, put on clothes and grabbed my already packed bag with another set of clothes and some necessary tools for my evening, rushed out of the house and catapulted myself into the just darkened sky. Pam had begged to be allowed to join me, but tonight would be between Victor and myself and I had waited a very long time for this night.

I landed after a five-minute flight, at the abandoned building I owned under another name just for these purposes, unlocked the door and made my way into the basement where my prey had spent the day. Last night when I brought Victor here, I had given him a six pack of Red Stuff to replace his lost blood, removed his silver chains and restrained him naked with chains that were covered by cloth to keep him weak. I wanted to ensure that any damage to his body was inflicted by my hands or by an implement delivered to him by myself. I was happy to see that his face had healed, as had the wound in his chest that I had created with my sword.

"Victor," I said gleefully as I entered the room he had rested in, "Good evening, I hope you slept well, we have a busy night tonight."

"Fuck you Northman," he growled, all pretenses of joviality were gone, "Felipe will have your head; he was expecting my call last night and will be on his way here to give you your final death."

I laughed at him, happy that he was so lively, "That's exactly what we hope will happen Victor and we are ready for it, but I think you have too much faith in Felipe. I don't believe he values you enough to risk himself to avenge your capture, but if he does, we are ready. But don't worry, I won't rush things tonight, you'll get a chance to tell me everything."

He glared at me, "Go fuck yourself," he growled.

I smiled dangerously at him, "On that note, I have a present for you." I emptied a large bag onto the table I had placed next to Victor's restrained form.

Victor growled as a pile of twenty-seven inch-long silver links clattered to the table. I looked at him, all hints of a smile gone from my face and voice, "You will beg me to be allowed to swallow each and every one of these links Victor, one for each year of my bonded's life, for I will either walk out of here when we are done this evening with an empty bag or with a bag full of parts of you. The decision, Victor, is up to you."

Victor snarled at me, exactly what I had been hoping for. I closed my eyes, enjoying the anticipation of ripping Victor apart piece by piece. I was sure he would break, they all do, but he was old enough and thus strong enough that I would have a chance to enjoy myself first. I picked up a silver link with my leather-covered fingers and held it up to his mouth. "Open up, Victor," he refused so I struck quickly, ripping his left eye from its socket as Victor screamed out in pain and rage.

I waited patiently until he had quieted some, held the eye up for him to see before squeezing it in my fist and dropping the jelly-like remains into my empty bag.

Once again I held up the link to his mouth, "Open up, Victor," I said with a true smile, thoroughly enjoying myself. He growled and groaned, ahhh, we were closer, but not there yet. Again I struck quickly, this time with a knife as I sliced off his pathetically small manhood in one motion. The screams that emitted from my prisoner were so satisfying. I had selected this building for its concrete rooms which would block screams from being heard from outside while allowing them to echo beautifully inside. I used both hands to twist and then rip the piece of flesh in two before placing them into my bag. I then lit a match and used it to carefully cauterize the stump, adding to Victor's pain, I didn't want him losing too much blood…yet.

"Open up Victor," I said again. He was still gasping and moaning through his pain, but refused me again…to my delight. I had a ball, literally, removing his next two body parts, prying open his sack like a Ziploc bag and plucking one ball out at a time as though I were picking cherries from a tree.

Victor also chose to give me his nose, four fingers and three toes, each of which I ripped off with my bare hands one by one and cauterized before he decided it would be best to accept the silver. He opened his shaking mouth just enough to allow the silver to pass into his mouth, a big error on his part, since the silver burned his lips and tongue on the way to the back of his throat where it got stuck. Having anticipated this, I allowed him more Red Stuff to wash the silver down. I was hard again, watching him do my bidding, admitting that I was his master.

Now instead of taking parts of his body with each piece of silver offered, I took information. It was much too easy and I was still unsatisfied as it turned out that he knew nothing about the death of my bonded. His glee had simply been in seeing my suffering; my losing the advantage Sookie gave me over him and with the threat of Felipe's retribution on me for allowing her to be killed.

By the end of the night, I was able to remove his restraints; the silver in his stomach was enough to keep him passive and would ensure that there would be no chance of him healing.

I liked my victims to be unrestrained, so I could have full access to their bodies, but more importantly, to give them a tiny bit of hope of being able to fight me off, so I avoided restraints whenever possible. I found that it helped me break them faster when they lost the belief in their body's own ability to fight rather than feeling that external devices held them back. I wanted them to acknowledge their weakness in my presence and then to choose to give me whatever I wanted.

The last thing I did before leaving him that night was to remedy the problem of his healed face with my own bare hands. I can't begin to describe the pleasure I received from feeling my fingers tear into the flesh of his lips and cheeks, knowing that he would never again plague the world with his counterfeit smile.

Once my initial need for revenge was sated, I allowed the satisfyingly long line of vampires, shifters and humans that Victor had stupidly enraged to take turns torturing him. Even the human brother of a vampire from Reno came with his woman and spent two full nights with Victor. Colton, it turned out was the human who warned Sookie about the fairy blood on the glasses at Victor's bar. I gave him whatever supplies he needed to exact his revenge for the death of his mother at Victor's hands.

My own child and rabid young grandchild had a joint session that would cause any maker to be deliciously prideful. Miriam was vicious and used her sewing talents to inspired ends. Immanuel joined them for an hour before deciding that his 'sisters' as he called them now, were definitely off the deep end...humans.

As this was occurring, I was solidifying my claim to the throne of Louisiana. Felipe, the coward that he is, fled the country before we even crossed his border. I was frustrated beyond belief, but I didn't have the time to chase him right now, but I would find him and kill him eventually. Victor had confirmed that he had been working alone in trying to destabilize and oust me from my position. Felipe's crime was in sending a power-hungry Victor to Louisiana to get him out of Nevada and in coveting what was mine. He had been ignoring my calls when I was seeking his support to be released from the marriage contract because he wanted my Sookie. I was convinced that his inactions set into motion whatever Sookie was doing that put her at such terrible risk that night in the swamp.

We knew that Felipe would return at some point, seeking revenge, but we would be ready for him if he were ever to try such a foolish move. For now, he was in hiding in some country that hopefully did not treat vampires well. Maybe humans would take care of my problem.

We agreed that Freyda should send her second in command and sometimes lover, Karl Fuerst to act as Regent of Nevada until a suitable ruler could be found. We decided after some debate to have the sheriffs and their top advisors meet to nominate candidates to form a pool from which we would select the next probationary ruler of Nevada. We chose the same course of action with Arkansas, but in this case, I sent Thalia to keep the few vampires there in line. The sheriff's of both kingdoms quickly accepted our offer to avoid an outright overthrow as Felipe had conducted in Louisiana.

Again, this more moderate action, although against my natural instincts and desire for blood, was a step that I felt was necessary to gain the good will of the population. I had my priorities and this process would hopefully smooth over and speed the development of my power structure. Of course we would be culling the field of supporters of the original regimes, but I didn't think we would have much trouble with them, Arkansas was a weak state with only a few vampires new to the state, and Nevada had been struggling ever since the takeover from being spread too thin.

I had been welcomed into the throne by the Louisiana vampires, Weres and witches, but I knew there were many of Victor's power hungry lackeys remaining that I would have to dig out. He and Felipe had made sure that their most ardent supporters had been here, because I, their only worthy foe, was here. Victor had given me names, locations and ongoing plots to disrupt Area 5 with the ease of squeezing a tube of toothpaste. It was pathetic really, but autocrats usually are cowards hiding behind vicious actions.

Months passed before I returned to Victor. He was hardly recognizable anymore, but I could still see the fear and desire when I introduced him to my accomplice for the evening. She struck at him quickly, biting his thigh viciously as I had instructed her to do before we had entered the room.

The fairy's eyes shone brightly as the blood dripped from her chin and off her pointed teeth. Niall had chosen well when he gave me this particular female for my purposes. I was already enjoying working in concert with the fairy prince; it afforded me some unusual advantages, such as this particular coalition.

She was safe in my presence; I easily controlled my lust for her blood. I only craved one thing now that my lover was gone and my position as king solidified…revenge.

I pointed to Victor's other thigh, hip and stomach, stood back and enjoyed the sounds of his feeble screams and groans as the fairy tore into his flesh again and again. He was too weak for even the pretense of a fight anymore…it was a shame.

I excused the fairy, thanking her for her assistance and then had the pleasure of using my dagger to slice Victor in the patterns I remembered clearly from Sookie's body, adding a few creative strokes to satisfy my own needs.

At midnight, Sam joined me at the warehouse that had been Victor's temporary residence. He brought with him a thin piece of wood he had sliced from Sookie's front porch at my request. I added it to a bundle, which included a blood stained piece of wood from the floor of the house where Sookie had been tortured and a stick from the swamp where she had been murdered. I allowed Victor to watch with his remaining eye as I tied the three pieces of wood together with strands of her hair that I had pulled from her brush, winding the hair around the sticks until they were a cohesive unit.

I fingered the soft hair over the hard wood as Sam and I stepped up to Victor's side. Our prisoner's eye widened as he saw me hand Sam the bundle. I smiled at Victor as I held up one bare finger and slowly scratched it down his sternum, splitting his skin and muscle and exposing his breastplate. My jubilation grew as I dug my fingertips into his sternum and shattered the bone before pulling open his ribcage and revealed his worthless heart.

Sam, who I usually regarded as a pacifist didn't hesitate as he raised the makeshift stake, "This for Sookie. Go straight to hell," he growled as he brought the stake down into Victor's heart.

We both stood and watched as first his heart and then the rest of Victor's body collapsed in on itself and turned to ash allowing the silver links to tumble to the concrete surface.

Sam turned to me and handed over the stake. We both nodded to the other and then he walked out the door. I had asked Sookie's brother Jason if he wanted to join us but he didn't have any interest in 'vampire shit' as he called it. I was pleased with Sam's participation and began to see new ways in which we could collaborate.

In fact, I almost called him back to see if he wanted to join me in 'questioning' the Pelt bitch whom I had kept alive and furious like a rabid caged animal all this time; but I was hungry now and besides, I didn't think he would have the stomach for that particular form of entertainment. So it would be all my pleasure, I'd been waiting for this for too long. That bitch had been on my hit list since she kidnapped my Sookie with that oaf Quinn, hurting my bonded and driving her into the arms of the Tiger. I couldn't wait to break her in every way possible.

I fingered the hair on my makeshift stake again as I surveyed the pile of ash that was Victor and I felt my satisfaction fading.

Where was she? Where was her body? I hated not knowing where she was. If she couldn't be living in my safe embrace, I should at least have been able to lovingly tuck her into the ground, not spend eternity wondering where she was.

I would destroy whoever had stolen her from me.

A/N:

-This is one of the first chapters I outlined when writing this story. Much of my research came from:

sacred-texts. com/ pac/hm/index. Htm (no spaces)

hawaiisharks. com/pdf/APaperbyHerbKane. Pdf

-I'll be posting these links, the painting of Pele and some more pictures of Pele's tears (yes they actually exist) on my wordpress site (choices2make). It's a real painting and is quite beautiful.

-Some time is going to be passing here in the next few chapters so I'll be adding some dates and D (departure) + however much time has passed plus Hunter's age where appropriate. Since I don't want to spend 50 chapters before these two finally get back together, I have to jump forward some to cover all the important events in Sookie's evolution (and Eric too).

-As they say on TV, these views are not necessarily my views (or any real Hawaiian's views, although all the information is based on mythology and Hawaiian history), just what I think Pua would believe.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N:  
>-I was able to combine two chapters into this one, that gets us one chapter closer to Sookie and Eric's reunion! If you can't tell, I'm frothing at the mouth to work more on that that chapter and to share it with you.<br>-Some of my wonderful reviewers don't have their PMs enabled. I try to respond to the reviews so long as I'm mostly done with my next post and I have an extra minute. So if you want a personal response please enable your PM, if not consider this my thank you!  
>-It came to my attention that some of you might be worried about our poor Eric wanting to meet the sun. Please don't worry about him in regards to this; we have too much to worry about for him and Sookie already. Save your emotional energy-we're all going to need it as soon as things pick back up. Eric had one or two fleeting thoughts that he deserved to meet the sun for letting Sookie down, but he didn't desire an end to his life. He is too strong to think that way. Eric is sad, lonely, angry with himself and every one else right now, but he is not suicidal. Don't worry!<p>

Chapter 17

Love

July, 2008 (D+ 2 years; Hunter = 8)

It was hot, and everything was very wrong. I could hear screams, cries for help and debris falling around me. I forced my eyes open and pushed away a piece of what I thought was drywall that had been covering my head and opened my eyes to a nightmare. Smoke swirled around me, whatever building I was in had been torn to pieces and I was on the ground, my legs trapped under a heavy metal beam. I knew I was in trouble because I couldn't feel any pain. I took a deep breath and smelled death.

A noise to my right caught my attention. I watched as Quinn pulled himself along the debris-strewn floor towards a destination a few feet away from me, the strong sensation of deja vu keeping me silent. He reached his target and brushed away more drywall revealing a burned and bloodied Eric. A small voice in my mind told me that Eric shouldn't be there, but he was so all I could feel was relief that he was all right. "Quinn, please," I begged, "please cover him, he needs to get out of the sun!"

Quinn looked back at me and reached for what I thought would be the piece of drywall to cover Eric, but instead his hand closed on a long thin piece of wood. I screamed in terror, trying to wake Eric so he could defend himself and struggled frantically to free myself but Quinn was too quick. I watched in horror as he ruthlessly plunged the stake into the man I loved.

I screamed and screamed, but nothing I did changed the fact that Eric was gone. Quinn turned back to me, but instead of his face, Lochlan was staring at me. He smiled viciously as his gaze passed over me and fixed on a spot to my left. I looked over, rubbing the tears from my eyes to clear my vision as Lochlan began to creep towards his new destination, and every cell and nerve in my body erupted in fiery terror as I saw the sweet young face and dark hair of my Hunter, "NO!"

I sat up in bed gasping; my scream still ringing in my ears and held my head in my hands as I rocked back and forth, trying to bring myself to some sense of calm after another horrible nightmare. I was shaking and coated in a sheen of sweat and the covers were all on the floor. It was the worst nightmare I had suffered through in a few months, they had been decreasing in frequency, but this one had been horrific. "Holy fuck," I breathed, trying to pull myself together.

Once I could move, I looked in on a peacefully sleeping Hunter. Breathing a sigh of relief, I knelt down beside his bed, kissed his forehead and laid my head gently on his chest, needing the contact to ground myself back in reality. He was here. He was safe. No one had hurt my sweet boy. After a few minutes of listening to his steady heartbeat, I stumbled into the living room where I collapsed onto the couch holding my head again. When would it end? When would I be free from the guilt and fear?

I was still tortured by the knowledge that I had left the people I loved. I had betrayed not only them, but myself as well by acting as I never thought I could. Yes, I know that it was for Hunter's and my well being, but it still made me question my understanding of who I was at the core and so I was still punishing myself.

I needed air, and although it was against my better judgment and routine to go outside, my rocks and the lapping water called to me. I listened for threats before I made my way carefully over the uneven ground and was immediately comforted as I neared the water's edge. The stars were bright and familiar and I stretched out on my familiar slab of rock to stare at the sky.

This was where I could breathe. This was the spot where I felt closest to God and to my lost friends and family. It was my healing place.

I relaxed into the familiarity of the sound of the water lapping against the rocks, the clicking of the bats flying overhead and the ceaseless breeze caressing my skin. I was home and yet the piece of me that was missing…that would always be missing, wept and reminded me that part of my soul was no longer living.

I missed him.

It had been two years, why couldn't I let him go? Was it the bond or the absence of it that plagued me so? I didn't think that was the answer, or at least not the whole answer. I missed him, not the bond.

As I had every day for the last year and a half in my training with Pua, I opened my shields, raised up my broken spirit, laid my heart and emotions bare and requested that God, nature, my 'aumakuas and the magic of this place heal me. Within a minute, I could feel the flow of my energy begin to cycle with that of nature. Immediately, I felt stronger and more resilient.

Pua and I had experimented with the opening and closing of my shields and found that when I opened them, the flow of energy was stronger, like a dam lock on a river. I had never explained to Pua what my shields were doing in terms of my telepathy, I wasn't able to expose us like that, and I just wasn't ready to take the risk of that level of exposure, but it hadn't mattered, she could still feel the energy flow and help me connect to the natural power of the planet around me.

It was within this flow of energy that I had learned that I truly did have healing abilities. I had been able to harness the energy of nature to heal a variety of small injuries and one day a broken wrist I had received from a fall while climbing the cliff at the edge of our property and the water.

In general, I healed quickly on my own without drawing from the powers of nature, but seeking out and tapping into the connection sped up the process significantly, just as Pua had demanded it would…how had she known? Whenever I asked her, she said that her ancestors had passed down these techniques for generations, and although she couldn't harness the power herself, she was aware of its potency and encouraged all her patients to try to utilize its influence.

This night, I found the connection easily, the flow that linked my energy and power to those of nature. Once I was able to seat myself within the current of energy, I could relax, but the emptiness continued to haunt me.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the things that gave me comfort. I was beginning to integrate some of Pua's other teaching into my life, and at quiet times like these, I could reach out and feel a connection to those of my family line who had come before me. Initially, I felt what I recognized as my parents but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find Gran or my grandfather. It made sense that I couldn't feel my grandfather since Fintan was my actual genetic link, but why couldn't I find Gran? She would have given me the greatest comfort.

In the last few months while exploring this connection, I had also begun to feel the presence of something else…something bigger, stronger and more comforting than I had ever felt before. I knew it wasn't any of my human ancestors but I couldn't tell if it was fairy or whatever that other piece of my history was. Pua was sure that I was either sensing my akua or more 'aumakuas, and I was starting to think she might be right although the concept of being related to a god or goddess was still very strange to me. Whatever this new connection was, I felt bound to my family roots in a way I had never found before, and it gave me a new sense of well being and belonging.

I was building a foundation within myself that I had never had before, not ever having had much understanding of my genetic lineage. What I did know of my 'people' made me very uneasy, so it was such a relief to find some comfort in reaching out to my ancestors; of course there was the major problem of them being dead, but according to Pua, that didn't really matter all that much, and I was beginning to see what she meant. I also felt comfort from the thought that I was getting closer to the answers Hunter and I needed. I couldn't reach my full potential or mana until I had more answers, so I would keep searching.

0-0-0-0-0

"I can't freaking believe it!" I yelled as I walked into Pua's house and allowed the screen door to slam behind me. Pua wasn't inside so I continued to the back door and let myself out into her beautiful garden. She not only had healing hands but also a green thumb, and believed that the two skills were closely related.

"Did you know?" I asked her forcefully when I spotted her sitting on the lanai drinking tea. "Did you know that Macey's insane?"

Pua mashed her lips together in a look of mixed disapproval of my actions and guilt over her own. I was caught up in my anger so I ignored her disapproval, "You did? She told you and you didn't try to talk her out of it? What the hell is going on?" I yelled to the sky. My anger, which had begun as simple shock and fear, was running out of control now. The anger that I had connected with years ago on my first full day here in Hana, had become something that I now had a hard time controlling. Generally I was able to focus it into working out at Ian's boxing club, but there were more and more times that it overflowed so that I had to work very hard to keep myself in check. Thankfully, I'd been able to keep my cool around Hunter, but Macey just knew how to break my control. She drove me crazy.

"Jeanne," Pua began…

"No, don't you 'Jeanne' me. You know what this will do to her as well as I do. Did you at least try to talk her out of it?"

"That is not my place," Pua said, her quiet words emphasized in contrast to my yelling.

"Not your place? You are the only medical professional besides Larry she let touch her during her whole pregnancy and delivery, you are the only person she listens to about her health. You have to tell her not to have another baby, she's already weak, she can't handle another pregnancy."

"She believes that if she can have another child, she should. She had been told as a teen that she might not be able to conceive so she believes that the babies are a gift from God."

I gave a brutal and bitter laugh, "So God's gift to her will be a shorter life for bringing more children into this world? Do you realize that she will be leaving Eva and Peter behind if she does this? Does she want to kill herself?" I yelled at her.

A pain, that was familiar but that had been muted in the past two years, mostly because of Macey and Hunter was growing in my chest and I felt as though I were beginning to break into tiny pieces. I couldn't lose her…I just couldn't, and I couldn't sit by and watch Peter and Eva grieve the loss of their mother. I loved her too much.

I began pacing in Pua's backyard while my mentor and friend watched me passively from the lanai.

"…and she says it is God's will…His will that she should choose to suffer and kill herself for another baby…" I ranted.

"I could understand if she found out that she was pregnant or if she didn't have a child at all, but she has two beautiful children who need her. What will they do if something happens to her? When something happens to her?" I was so scared and so angry, the rage boiled within me and I clenched my hands; they felt hot and I needed to hit something to release the pressure building within them.

Instead of hitting something, I stomped my foot in a childish release of anger, but instead of feeling impotent and immature, I felt…powerful. My anger rose within me and surged through my body…anger, power and heat, all combined together, forming a dynamic coupling; flashing through my cells and running through my blood like an angry river. It was an incredible and heady feeling.

I stumbled back two steps; the ground beneath me had caved in on itself and thrown me off balance. I looked down to see that the ground beneath my feet was scorched dry and was cracking and that the effect was moving away from me in a circular pattern, drying and destroying all living matter in its way.

My anger faded as I took in the terrifying sight and finally, the destruction halted about fifteen feet away from me. Within the circle, nothing remained but dried earth and piles of dust where Pua's beautiful flowers and bushes had been…nothing but myself. Thankfully Pua was twenty feet away, sitting in a chair on her patio. I couldn't even allow the thought of what might have happened if she had been standing closer to me, it was too terrifying.

I was in absolute shock as I stared at what I had done. I knew that I had done it; I had felt it happening, felt the power build with my emotions and then surge out of my body through my feet as my rage reached it's peak and I stomped my foot on the ground. I numbly raised my clenched hands and opened my trembling fingers to look at my palms. I had felt the power gathering at my hands too, but the fists had apparently kept it from being released through them. My palms were pink and tender, but unharmed and I couldn't stop staring at them; my mind was caught up in a loop of thoughts replaying the incident, but making no sense of the evidence.

I felt Pua's hand on my arm as she guided me gently into the house and sat me on a chair in the kitchen. She gave me a drink in a tall glass, the cool liquid felt good going down my throat and I became more coherent. I looked up at Pua, embarrassed and ashamed at my actions. I was fearful of her reaction. She knew I was…unique, but knowing and seeing were different things. I didn't know how she would react to seeing this display of dangerous power. Healing power was different, she was used to that, it was her mana, but this…

"I…I'm sorry Pua, I'll replant your garden and make it beautiful again for you," I said lamely.

"Of course you will," she said gently, tilting her head at me and studying me through intelligent eyes. "This is the first time the power has come to you in that way, no?" she asked.

I nodded slowly, feeling tears of shame and confusion forming in my eyes. A lump had grown in my throat so that I couldn't speak.

She pursed her lips and said firmly, "Then you have much work to do."

I gave her a confused look.

"You must learn to control and properly wield this power. You cannot allow it to control you or you will destroy all you love and hold dear." I was shocked and scared now, thinking of the ways this 'power' could be a danger to those around me. I felt like I was back in Rhodes, holding that bomb in the Dr. Pepper can, but this time, the bomb was housed within my body rather than in a can that I could hand over to someone else.

"Like Pele your power comes to you in times of emotional upheaval, but she has her adversaries to cool her temper and limit her destruction. You do not have that influence, so you must master your powers on your own. Hiding from it will not work, your power will always spill out, it is a part of you as surely as your heart and breath are a part of you."

I nodded again as a tear rolled down my cheek. What the hell was I? And how could I possibly be a good person, or 'supernatural being' more than person…a person couldn't do what I had just done. How could I possibly accept that I was no longer a human being? I mean, I'd known that I was one eighth fae and some part 'other', but I had always held onto the idea that I was still mostly human. I had been wrong.

"Don't worry," Pua continued, "I will let you repair my garden and I am not shocked or repulsed by you. I always knew you were led to me for a reason. I know you have not liked the comparisons I have made between you and Pele, because of some of her deeds, but Pele's rage came from jealousy, greed and carelessness. You are not Pele. Your rage comes from love and concern; it is a pure emotion. Do not be ashamed."

I swallowed down my tears and managed a small sad smile. I was so blessed to have found this place and this woman to help me. I couldn't even imagine going through these changes without her. "Pua, how did I do that?" I asked quietly, taking another long drink from the cool glass.

"I don't know for sure, but it makes sense that since you are able to take power and energy from nature, that you are also able to reverse it and give that power back all at once."

"I guess that explains why I'm so tired, if I put all my energy into creating that mess."

"Yes, controlling the flow of energy can be exhausting. You recall how fatigued you became when you were trying to relieve Macey of her labor pains. You could siphon off her pain for a while, but once you fatigued, you couldn't help either of you anymore. It is essential to find balance and control Jeanne. Without it, the whims of your emotions will control you and your powers."

I nodded, she was referring to the fact that I became so tired from trying to take Macey's pain during her natural labor that I lost the ability to shield my thoughts and I learned, after cutting myself on a shard of a glass I had dropped from my trembling fingers, that I couldn't heal myself anymore either.

I had been successful initially with taking her pain, allowing her excess energy to flow into me, but I could not pass energy back into her to give her strength, she simply could not accept it. The efforts had done nothing more than fatigue and frustrate me. Maybe now that I had learned that I could expel energy, I could find a way to control it so I could give it to someone else. However the image of the dust where the garden used to be flourishing terrified me when I thought of that power turned on a human being.

o-o

The very next day I set to work with getting the supplies I needed to repair Pua's garden. I picked up soil, hers was useless now and the variety of plants and bushes that she told me she wanted.

I worked all morning and into the afternoon without tiring. I rarely found a physical task that fatigued me much anymore and communing with the ground this way always gave me energy. I know a lot of my endurance came from my training with Ian, but I'd studied with him for the past year and a half and had outgrown his abilities. I needed someone stronger, faster and with more unique skills to keep me advancing with my own development.

Everything he taught me, I picked up immediately and was able to integrate into my skill set. The guys had even labeled me 'Tita', which roughly means a tough girl who thought she was a guy. It was a good-natured joke and I took it that way, but they were starting to get a little uncomfortable with how strong I was and the speed at which I learned new abilities. I was beginning to see attitudes sliding dangerously toward fear and distrust of the unknown that I represented to them. It was time to move on from that situation.

Mr. Cataliades hadn't been exaggerating when he said I hadn't matured yet. I realized now that he didn't mean that I would be sprouting bigger breasts, thank goodness, but that my body would mature into a more capable machine. I know that sounds odd, but that's what it felt like now. I couldn't believe what I was capable of physically. The speed I had with running and with some fighting movements was shocking and exciting, I had a feeling that I could now rival the physical skills of a shifter in human form. It was hard to tell if my perceptions were correct since there was only one shifter living in Hana and he was very discrete about showcasing his extra abilities. He didn't hide that he was a shifter; he just kept his skills to himself.

In the afternoon, I picked Hunter up from school and brought him over to Pua's house so I could finish my work there while he did his homework.

"Hunter! Hey man. Hunter, come on over! We're gonna play capture the flag," a voice called through Pua's stand of trees that separated the back of her garden from the neighbor's house.

Hunter's head snapped up from his work to look at me, "Can I go Mom? I'm almost done. I'll finish it tonight, I promise!" I loved seeing him interacting so naturally with his peers and I felt a brief pang of regret that we had to live so separately from others, but we both needed the space and the silence.

He would have loved to have friends nearby now that Macey, Larry, Peter and Eva had moved out of the guesthouse and into their own home, but it couldn't work. Even though he had developed his shields enough to make it through school without hearing thoughts, he was generally tired at the end of the day and was relieved to be able to relax at home.

"Sure honey, have fun. I'll be here for a while yet," I told him as he ran off to play.

"He's growing up so nicely Jeanne, you're doing a good job with the boy," Pua commented as she brought me out a plate of fruit and a cold drink. I sighed with delight when I saw what she had and sat down with her at the table to eat the delicious snack. I'd never gotten used to the plethora of fresh fruit here in Hawaii, it always made me smile.

"I know, he's just incredible, it's amazing how easily he slipped into my life," into my heart, I added silently. Every moment of my life centered around his even when I was working on my own skills or at the foundation I had started with Larry's help that brought doctors and nurses to Hana for multiple years in exchange for paying off student loans and providing free housing.

I had expected to be overwhelmed by the demands of raising a child, but it felt so natural. I didn't want to do things just for myself anymore; I wanted to do them for Hunter and for us.

The love I had for Hunter was different from anything I had felt for anyone else before. I realized sometime in the last two years that if I had been willing to kill to protect Eric, Jason, Pam and a number of other friends, I was now readily willing to die for Hunter. There was no decision to make, it was a given that I would choose him over myself every time.

I didn't know if it was the fact that he was a child that made me feel so protective and to have so very much love for him, or if it was that he was the only family I had left; but my love for him was absolute and overrode any other emotion or instinct that I had.

Perhaps it was his unconditional love for me, or his absolute dependence on me. I didn't care why, but he was the center of my universe and I would do anything for him.

I got back to work, thinking about love. My fear for Macey's health remained uneasily in my belly, threatening to eat away at the small bits of happiness and security I had scraped together in the past two years. My fear and anger at the thought of someone I loved risking her health had combined to create a terrible power within me. How was I to control this unknown power when I allowed myself to love? There is nothing that takes control from you faster than when you give love to another person. It's the ultimate risk to your heart. I knew this too well.

I had allowed myself to love again...would it destroy me permanently this time?

0-0-0-0

October, 2008 (D+ 2.4 years; Hunter = 9)

"Ms. Holden, thank you for inviting me. My Mom said to give you this; it's cookies for everyone."

"Thank you Nick, we're glad you could come, the boys are outside," I greeted the tall boy from Peter's football team and as soon as his back was turned, I glanced at Macey with a wicked smile and dropped the whole plate of cookies in the trash. We had tried them before and they were completely inedible.

Nick dropped two presents on the full table and ran outside to join the large group of kids who were over for Hunter and Peter's ninth and tenth birthday party. We encouraged the boys to invite all the kids from their classes and teams and planned a variety of activities including horse back riding, sumo wrestling suits, field activities run by local high school students, swimming and a barbecue. It was a fantastic day.

I had a movie planned for the evening using a projector so the kids could lie on the carpet and watch the show on the ceiling to feel like they were outside. Yes, I did that. I had learned a lot about technology from watching Mike and Larry tinker with a variety of high tech devices here and at the guesthouse.

The transition from outside to inside for the movie was occurring smoothly at dusk with many of the kids already gathering on the floor when one of the boys got a text from his brother. Apparently the older kids were all playing flashlight tag in the pasture next to our property and wanted the party to join in with the fun. He whooped out the news to all the kids and there was a mass exodus as they all poured out and filtered into the neighborhood. I caught a glimpse of Hunter as he ran happily with his friends out of the house wielding his blue G.I. Joe flashlight.

My heart stopped and I shouted mentally at him to stop; he couldn't go outside, it was almost full dark.

_I'll be fine Mom, don't worry. I'm old enough to take care of myself. See you later._

Nine! He was nine, he wasn't old enough, and he wasn't capable of protecting himself, I didn't even know if I was capable of protecting us.

_Hunter you get back here right now! _I demanded.

Sorry Mom, gotta go, this is your hang-up, not mine. See ya.

I froze. He wasn't coming back and I couldn't make him come back without him hating me for embarrassing him in front of the whole class after he'd worked so hard to fit in with them. I covered my mouth with my hand to hold back a scream of fear and despair as my little boy raced into the pitch dark and toward who knows what else…visions of Victor, Felipe, faceless fae and vampires clawed at my mind and shredded my nerves. I realized after some time that I was still clutching my mouth, I was in my room now, sitting on the floor with my back against the wall.

The door opened and a worried looking Macey came in and sat on the ground next to me. She held my free hand and brushed hair from my face. She quietly said, "Peter believes that you are fearful of vampires and that's why you won't go outside after dark, is that true?"

She had never asked before, never pried into my fears. Slowly, I looked at her and nodded. "He's so little, he can't protect himself. I can't lose him Macey. I can't face the loss again." I lowered my hand and cupped it with my other like a bowl and slowly separated my hands until they were apart. "But I can't hold it together anymore, it's all falling apart and I can't hold it together, Hunter…you…I can't face the loss again. I won't survive it this time." Tears fell freely down my face.

"This is what happened? You lost loved ones, before you came here? That's what has tortured you all this time."

I nodded again. "I chose to leave them to find a safe place for us. We were in so much danger," I choked out.

"Your scars?" Macey asked hesitantly.

My physical scars had healed fully and not even the worst of them were visible anymore, but the emotional scars remained. My memories of the time I spent with Lachlan and Naeve threatened to drown me and I covered my whole face with both of my hands, my nightmare resurfacing and stealing my breath. That would never happen to Hunter, they would never put one finger on him. Never. I would not allow it. Please...please, don't ever let him be hurt.

"Never mind," whispered Macey, "you made a very difficult decision to keep yourself and Hunter safe and look at him now. He's a bright and happy child. You did the right thing Jeanne."

I agreed with her, but shook my head, it all was worthless if he was taken or hurt; I was failing him. "It was the most selfish, difficult and cruel thing I have ever done and now…" I shook my head and reached my arm out toward the darkness.

"Oh honey, we can't stop them from growing up. All we can do is give them strong roots, equip them to protect themselves and to make good choices and then we have to let them fly on their own."

She didn't know the forces we were facing, but she was right. I had been so focused on helping Hunter with his shields and preparing myself for protecting us that I had neglected to help him learn how to protect himself. I had also protected him from some of the truth that would give him a healthy respect for the dangers threatening us. I would make steps to remedy all of those oversights tomorrow.

It was time.

o-o-o

It felt good to be doing something. Training with Hunter, learning weapons skills, and adding passive defenses to the house and property. I sought out a metal smith in Honolulu who was willing to make items for our home. I requested decorative doorknobs for our outer doors, which were made of a mix of iron and silver woven together into a design. I had him make a silver chain necklace with an iron Hawaiian fish hook pendant for Hunter (he chose the design). Hunter and I buried wood stakes and iron and silver pikes around the property and marked them in ways we alone would recognize.

I had a 'safe room' installed underground on our property under the pretense that we were worried about nuclear war. The silver plated door, yes silver, this was a safe house designed for the Fellowship of the Sun (I hated supporting anything connected with them, but we needed it), was designed to lock itself for a designated period of time once it was engaged. The purpose, if used for nuclear war was to set it for a number of years, but we set it for a week, figuring that if anything happened, the threat would probably pass within that time frame. We had a monitoring system installed so we could survey the threat outside before leaving and there was a phone so we could call for help if needed. Inside, the space was a fully functional underground home complete with entertainment, canned and frozen foods, a full kitchen, bathroom and other creature comforts.

I also contacted a noted Japanese karate instructor and discussed the opportunity of having him come to teach both Hunter and I defense. We developed a plan that he would come over for the summer with his wife and they would stay for free in our guesthouse with all food, a car and other necessities included. She would teach Japanese to the local kids in summer school and he would instruct Hunter or I much of the day in karate and weapons skills. We were all excited for the opportunity.

Hunter had eagerly gone along with all of my modifications and the defensive instruction since it would give him more freedom and he was a rational child who knew the risks in the world around him, almost as much as I did since he had been able to read my mind sometimes before we came to Hawaii and when I let him see my history.

Hunter and I worked with Kanizawa, our karate instructor for three months. Hunter for four hours a day and myself for at least eight, sometimes we both did more. We were infatuated with the techniques Kanizawa had to teach us and Hunter absorbed them like a sponge. He was incredible with a Bo or staff and was getting really good with a sword, and I wasn't too shabby either, giving our instructor a run for his money. By the end of our summer together, we had both developed conversational Japanese language skills since we asked Kanizawa and his wife to only speak Japanese when around us. I was so happy that we were developing our defensive skills and would be better able to protect ourselves.

I bit the bullet figuratively and competed a will, naming Macey and Larry as Hunter's legal guardians if anything were to happen to me. I added a sealed letter explaining Hunter's unique needs and prayed that they would handle it as well as they had handled everything else so far. I also purchased seven apartments or small houses around the country for us to use in the event of an emergency and had fingerprint locks recognizing both of our prints installed on one door to each place so we wouldn't have to worry about keys.

We were finally shoring up our defenses. I couldn't believe that it had taken me this long to do these things, but in retrospect, neither of us had been ready before this. I was just grateful that I had been given the time to recharge before anything major had happened.

E~

"I don't want to hear anymore from you about this, Pam" I said to my child, absolutely frustrated and at the end of my tolerance limit with her.

"Eric, I know how hard it is to think about, but you've never really taken the time to listen to what I have to say about what I found."

"Will any of it bring her back?" I asked in a harsh voice.

"No, but…"

"Then none of it matters does it? I know what I felt and what I saw, so I don't give a shit what you found in her house unless it will bring her back or tell me who killed her. Does your information fit into either of those categories Pam?"

"No…" she said looking like she had a lot more to say on the topic. This was a monthly conversation she pushed on me and it always began with something about a pillowcase. I had no interest in hearing her and I just wanted her to shut the fuck up, it was hard enough without her throwing my last moments with Sookie in my face every chance she got. This had to stop.

"Then you are not to speak to me about your theories regarding this again, do you understand Pam?" I pushed my dominance as her maker to gain her compliance; she nodded, looking hurt and angry. "I am simply trying to move on, to focus on the running of this kingdom, on keeping us all safe and on our fae problem which has just become Stan's fae problem. I have much to accomplish Pam, and you are my second, are you ready to help me rather than distracting me?"

She nodded, still looking very upset, but heeding my words. I rarely ordered her to do anything, but when she got herself involved in my personal life, I would not tolerate her interference.

"Thank you, now please ask Susanna to send up a donor so I can ready myself for another interminable night of meetings."

She nodded again and left the room. I was being an ass and we both knew it, but we both also knew that discussions about Sookie were forbidden unless they had a direct connection to finding the Scrios who murdered her.

I was fully convinced now that she had not been killed by any vampire, fae, shifter or human, I had spent the last two years using all my influence and Stan's telepath to determine that fact. Sookie had been murdered by Niall's enemy, the Scrios. Niall accepted blame for her being targeted in retribution for a Scrios he had killed over a hundred and fifty years ago. He had not heard of any more sightings of Scrios, but the fae had ways of detecting them when they used their magic in significant ways. So they could not hide forever; I would get my revenge.

I looked at my schedule for the night. My first meeting was with Sam, we were meeting to discuss a joint business venture I had suggested and he had expanded upon. This was our first meeting since we ended Victor and I was actually happy to be working with him again.

I would also be meeting with Niall and with Stan's representative. For some reason, the fae left in our world were on the move again. After congregating in Area five of Louisiana, for a number of years, they were moving west, and they were causing problems that I would assess and attempt to smooth over. My connection to Niall had become known throughout the supernatural community and I had been unanimously selected to be the vampire representative for fae relations. It had been expected with my connections and due to the fact that I was one of a few vampires who could resist attacking a fairy at first scent. It wasn't easy, but I managed. I had slowly become accustomed to it after spending so much time with Sookie and around her relatives.

The rest of the meetings were state business or related to Nevada and Arkansas. They had selected their new rulers, but the major decisions and problems needed to be cleared by either myself or Freyda; I found the process phenomenally boring. I never thought I would look forward to meeting with Sam or Niall, but the time had come.

o-o-o-o-o

I grabbed the blond hair and pushed her head forward so I didn't have to see her face. I was disgusted, she…they all disgusted me. As I did each night, I turned off my mind, closed my eyes and sought my release. My teeth bit into her neck and I kept my lips firm so I didn't have to feel her repellent skin, but I couldn't avoid the blood. Her blood, a necessary agent for my strength and survival, was like sewer water filling my mouth, filtering through my body.

I hated them all.

I finished silently and pulled away from her, not caring if she was satisfied and wiped my mouth with a handkerchief. She was still bleeding, so I wet my fingers and rubbed them onto her wounds, clotting the blood; I couldn't tolerate licking her clean.

Why the fuck had Pam sent me a blond anyway? She knew better than that. Susanna knew not to allow any blond donors into my office, so this must have been Pam's way of paying me back for ordering her to shut up, the spiteful bitch. She would have known that I didn't have the time to send for a replacement and that I'd have to make do. It's not common for her to be so vindictive with me, so I must have really upset her.

Why the fuck couldn't she just let go of that stupid pillowcase. I don't know what happened to it, but I did know what had happened to Sookie and no pillowcase was going to change that. Pam just wanted to help me find some answers, but she was not going about the right way. I wanted answers about the Scrios now, not a fucking pillowcase.

I sighed as I zipped my pants and cleaned my hand, I had not meant to hurt Pam, she had gone above and beyond what was expected to support me these last few years. I regretted my authoritative approach to handling the situation; I would have to find a way to apologize...

I was distracted from my thoughts as she turned from her prone position over the edge of my desk and looked at me with dreamy, simpering eyes…disgusting.

"Leave. Tell Susanna I am ready," I said, my voice cold and harsh.

She batted her eyes again and pulled down her skirt before curtseying, "Yes, Your Majesty."

Disgusting.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Wow another crazy week on the fanfiction website. Thank you all for hanging in there and for the feedback, it keeps me going! I'm glad you seem to like Sookie's evolution; she's definitely on her way. This was a really fun chapter to write, it brings a lot together and finally gives us some answers.

I combined two Sookie chapters together into this one, so I didn't have room for Eric's POV, sorry. He will be back next chapter.

0-0-0

Chapter 18

Home Denied

February 2009 (D+ 2.8 years; Hunter = 9)

"Please? Please, please, please?" the voice whined in my ear, and no, it wasn't Hunter. How in the world could I possibly refuse her, even though I desperately wanted to do just that?

"Come on Jeanne, come with us, let's go play, you know that we all need some fun. Maybe you'll meet a nice guy at the bar or around town…you haven't dated anyone since you got here."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, like I needed her to point out my celibacy to me.

"Macey, every time you open your mouth, I find another reason to change my answer to 'no'."

"Then yes? You'll come with us to the big island and to Oahu and go out with us to the bar…at night?" she emphasized the words, 'at night'.

I frowned and bit my lip, wondering if I would regret this decision, "Yes."

She grabbed me in a tight hug and then pulled back enough to look at me seriously. "I know how hard this is for you Jeanne, but I really appreciate it. If you get uncomfortable at any point, I'll go back the hotel with you, okay?"

I smiled, she was so eager to get out and 'play' as she called it before she got too far along in her pregnancy. At three months, she called these next two months her respite between her morning sickness and being huge and uncomfortable…_and sick_ I had to add pessimistically.

So I would go to spend time with her and the other women, who I enjoyed, and who actually liked me amazingly enough.

Being away from Hunter for four days made me nervous, but he was so excited about Peter, Eva and Larry's five day sleepover at our house that I couldn't be too concerned about leaving him. That had been my only demand; they had to be at our house to give Hunter a chance for at least a little privacy if he needed it and to keep him near our safe house and our weapons. He was still young, but he could defend himself by getting to safety or to a weapon he was familiar with if he needed to. The only reason I felt comfortable leaving was because of our training and the defensive measures we had set up around the house.

We would be staying two nights on the Big Island near the Volcanoes National Park, this was Macey's pick of destinations and then one more night on Oahu. The focus of our trip to Oahu was football, of course. The girls were ecstatic that we had obtained 50-yard line, second row tickets to the Pro Bowl and were eager to visit a famous football bar where we would 'hopefully' meet some players who were in town for the game.

Before I knew it, I was on my way to the Big Island with Macey, Christine, Bette and Beth, Christine's roommate. I have to admit, I was pretty excited, I'd never seen the other islands and was eager to check out the Volcanoes National Park, but my excitement didn't last very long. As we landed and got off the plane, I began to feel physically uncomfortable. It wasn't anything too bad, just a little weakness; a little dreary almost as though I had just recovered from an illness or spent the night crying or maybe gave too much blood; or had it taken as was my experience.

Was it the island or did I have a bad reaction to the flight for some reason? I tried to shake it off, but couldn't. I remembered having a similar feeling when I had a quick layover on my way to pick Hunter up in Chicago…odd.

"Are you okay Jeanne?" Macey asked, perceptive as always.

"Oh, sure, just feeling a little off color right now, I'll get over it."

Macey looked at me with concern, she knew I didn't get sick or worn down, not in the time that she had known me at least.

"Don't worry about it, I'm perfectly fine," I brushed off her concern and forced myself to present a more energetic front. I was not going to be a party pooper.

"Hop in," said Beth, climbing into the driver's seat of our rental car, "It will take us less than an hour to get to the park, but we need to stop and pick up some food and water before we go in, we'll be driving around a lot today so we should be prepared, there's not much food once you enter the park."

Beth was a natural tour guide, she was raised on this island and has visited the park 'more times than she cared to count', but she was excited to be leading the tour this time rather than having to follow her parents or school classmates around.

The tour was horrible, well let me rephrase that, I felt horrible on the tour. I just couldn't get any energy going. I felt like a bag of bones and I spent most of the time pulling myself along after my friends, just trying to keep up. Each time we were in the car I fell straight to sleep and when I did venture out, I felt worse for it, so by the end of the day, I stuck to the car or sat in the shade against a cool rock, watching families and couples come and go excitedly describing the petroglyphs or the lava flows and tubes.

That night I curled up in bed while the girls met in Beth and Christine's room to chat. I hoped that if I got a good night's sleep I would feel better in the morning.

The next morning I woke up still feeling as though I were walking through water. I forced myself to get up, shower and eat. Meanwhile, I downed half a pot of coffee. I was more wired as a result, but still felt weak.

Today we were going to see the active volcano flow. We'd be getting a late start to the day and then making our way to the flow just before sunset so we could see it glowing in the dark. This is what Macey and I were particularly excited to see, it was supposed to be an amazing sight, with bright red lava hitting the cool ocean. I didn't want to miss it.

I think the girls pushed our departure later than planned for my benefit, because we ate lunch at the Inn rather than on the road. I was grateful in the extreme for their thoughtful adaptations to our schedule.

We left around two and headed to see a few areas of the park that we hadn't looked at yesterday and then went to the lava field. We each brought our jackets, water, cameras and wore good hiking shoes. Beth had warned us that the ground was really uneven and the dried lava, the only kind you would ever want to touch of course, was sharp.

We began our hike down the path to the fresh lava, but about half way down, I realized that I simply couldn't go any farther. I was clammy and weak and my legs wouldn't stop trembling. Wow I was pathetic. I walked over to a rock and sat down, hard.

"Beth, can I have the keys, I'm going to have to go back to the car, I feel rotten," I said breathlessly.

"Sure Jeanne do you want one of us to stay with you?"

"No, I'm fine, I just can't go any farther."

"Jeanne, honey, are you sure? I can stay," Macey said sincerely.

"Nope. Go. I'm just going to rest for a minute and then go back." I hoped they would leave quickly because I was pretty sure that I was going to lose my lunch.

They reluctantly moved on toward the flow, and I realized quickly that I had been right, I was going to puke. I moved away from the path as fast as I could and was violently sick, leaning over with my hands on my thighs. Man do I hate throwing up.

"What do we have here?" a rough male voice asked tauntingly.

I jumped initially at his voice, but ignored him as I washed my mouth out with water and spat it onto the ground. If he didn't know what I was doing, I sure as heck wasn't going to tell him.

As I regained my senses, I dropped my shields; what was I thinking? This could be a seriously dangerous situation. I was weak, obviously not thinking straight, and it was getting dark.

I couldn't hear him and I couldn't sense a void, nothing. All I could pick up was a family of four making their way to the flow. Maybe he left?

I turned around. Nope. Right there behind me, inches away. Oh shit.

He would have been a handsome man with his smooth dark skin, strong features and muscular build, but his eyes scared me. They were the blackest eyes I had ever seen and they sparkled menacingly at me.

He leaned in to smell me, oh man, that was never a good sign. I backed up, my heart rate increasing and tripped over a piece of lava, barely managing to stay on my feet.

"Leave me alone," I said standing up tall, trying to look tough and I began to walk away from him, looking around for a weapon but he was as fast as a vampire if not faster and in my weakened state, I felt slower than a regular old human.

"No. You are on my land," he said simply and continued to stare at me and at my necklace, his face twisting in anger as he saw it clearly.

His hand reached out to grab my pendant, but I clasped it in my hand, feeling the anger growing within me, "Get away from me," I said forcefully and the ground under my feet cracked. Shit. I took a deep breath to try and rein in my temper.

"So I see you aren't completely useless," he sneered.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're part fairy," he spat at me.

My eyes widened, "How can you tell?"

"I can smell it, but most of all I can smell that you are incomplete. Incomplete, useless and weak. The runt of the litter."

Wow, I'd been called a lot of things, but that was a new one.

I shook my head in frustration, "I'm leaving now," I turned to go and there he was standing right in front of me again, his body almost touching mine.

"I don't think so. Who did this? Who made you?" he demanded.

My heart was pounding, I took a quick step back; this had the makings of a really bad night for me, but I had left this type of bullying behind and I wasn't going to put up with it any longer. I focused on trying to pull some energy from the ground and was relieved as I felt a strong current of power flow through me, much faster than at home. I was still weak physically, but the power was available to me, and I was determined that I would be willing to use it to defend myself if I needed to.

"Who made me? I'm not a vampire, my parents made me."

"Your 'parents' were just the vehicle for your birth, idiot fairy, who decided to create your line? Who made you? Who is your makua?" he growled.

This was just way too strange and I was getting more uncomfortable and nervous with each passing second as the light dimmed. "Who are you anyway?"

He gave a dangerous bark of a laugh, "If you were complete, I would welcome you and say that I was your 'aumakua, but you are not and so I do not claim you."

What the fuck? My 'aumakua, my ancestral spirit? Bullshit, there was no way in hell that I was related to this prick, alive or dead.

"Well thank goodness for that," I said vehemently and made a quick move to the left around him, but he grabbed my right arm. His hand was hot and it made me feel even weaker and nauseous again, my vision dimmed and I was dizzy. I cried out feebly in shock.

"Weak," he hissed in my face, "you are not worthy of my blood."

His hot hand moved from my forearm to my shoulder and he pressed down, hard. There was nothing I could do, my legs crumbled beneath me and my bare knees struck the sharp lava and it cut into my skin like jagged glass.

What was going on? This shouldn't be happening! What was he, and why was he so angry with me?

He placed both hands on either side of my face, my heart was pounding and I was sure from the look in his eye that he was planning some serious damage to my neck. I saw my life flash before my eyes with most of the pictures starring my sweet little boy Hunter.

I had to do something, I had to get back to Hunter and damn it I wanted to live! I remembered the last time I was I mortal peril I had Eric supporting me within the bond. His absence was more piercing than ever, but I could hear his words urging me to fight and to find a way to survive. I could only rely on myself now, so I pulled more energy from the ground and gathered all the power, anger and fear in my body and directed it to my hands and out through my palms and right into my attacker's chest, accepting the responsibility of my actions, knowing what I might do to him. The power and heat hit him straight on, but all he did was close his eyes, take a deep breath and smile, absorbing the power flow directly from me. He even seemed to glow a bit. I realized with horror that I had strengthened him rather than hurt or destroy him as I hoped I could.

His smile was gone and he was staring back down at me with hatred boiling in his dark eyes and I felt his hands begin to move, turning my head to the right. A high-pitched cry escaped my lips as I grabbed frantically at his arms, trying to push his hands off me.

"That's enough," a deep feminine voice rumbled from behind me.

His hands stilled immediately, "Why?" he said, never taking his eyes off me, "she's tainted by fairy blood, she will never be whole."

"I said, that's enough. Let her be," the ground around us shook slightly.

His glare intensified, and let me tell you, I've been on the end of a lot of hateful glares in my life, but this one took the cake, this fellow was spitting mad.

He took his hands off my face and slowly stepped back before walking past me toward the sound of the female voice.

I collapsed down with my bottom on my heels for a minute to gather myself, grateful that the dizziness faded as soon has his hands left my body.

When I regained my equilibrium I very gently moved one foot under me and then shifted my weight so I could stand up, trying to avoid placing my hands on the sharp lava. I looked down at my knees through my pants, they were bloody but the wounds were already healing.

I took a deep breath and turned around. The male was still there, he stood head and shoulders over the female who was a wizened old woman. My eyebrows shot up as I took her in, I immediately had a suspicion as to her identity and I was completely floored at the thought. Gray hair, wrinkled dark skin, thin body and a moderate stature that was wrapped in a simple flowing white dress. She looked like she wouldn't be able to make a trained dog sit much less control a large and angry male. The only thing that made it clear that she was not human was that her eyes were a deep shade of red.

"I…appreciate your help ma'am," I said. I know that was pathetic, but really, what else could I say? There was no way I was going to say 'thank you' to a strange supernatural creature, even if she did help me. I had learned a thing or two from the fairies.

"Sit," she said firmly, her voice belying her age, and pointed to a large flat rock. I gasped as she moved, or glided more aptly, over the uneven rocks and sat on the rock next to the one she had indicated to me; yeah, definitely not human. The male walked soundlessly as well until he stood behind her, still glowering at me.

I hesitated, but she tapped the rock with her hand and I knew I had to join her, she had just saved my life and I was pretty sure that she wasn't as weak as she appeared to be. There was something about her that warned me that her appearance was simply a façade.

I sat and she looked at me kindly, "Child, this place is not for you." Don't I know it. "You must return to your home, you are safer there."

I agreed with her wholeheartedly and was definitely not going to argue, "We leave tomorrow morning," I said nodding, making it perfectly clear that I would not be staying here.

"You're letting her go?" the male snapped, "She is tainted…by the fairies! Fairy blood runs in her veins! She is filthy," he shouted as he pointed at me, the ground around us cracked in a familiar circular pattern, but there were no plants for him to destroy in his anger. Crap, I had to admit that he could be my relative seeing as though we had the same physical reactions to anger. But what in the world was his problem?

"Be gone," she waved a hand at him in a very Ericesque move. He stayed where he was, his finger still pointing at me; I could almost feel it burning into my chest.

Suddenly I heard startled cries of excitement from the lava field and the dark took on a red tint. I honed in on Macey's thoughts, a large area had just opened up with molten lava, giving everyone quite a show. There was no danger to anyone, so I returned my focus to my immediate problem.

The male seemed to respond finally as he gave me another scathing look and then stormed silently into the lava field and was no longer visible. Had she caused the lava flow to widen? I guess it only made sense, and the whole situation reinforced my suspicions as to her identity. I gulped and took a deep breath to steady myself.

Her gaze had never left me, "Who brought the fairy blood to you child?" she said gently, drawing my attention back to her.

The cat was out of the bag, so there was not reason to hide the truth, "My grandfather was half-fairy, so I'm one-eighth."

She smiled, her eyes flicking to my necklace briefly, "Ah…I see."

Well I sure didn't see anything, "I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what happened here."

She tilted her head slightly to the side and contemplated me for a while, "It's simple really, I am an akua, but more pertinently, I am your 'aumakua, your ancestral spirit."

"My…" I began. Holy Mary, mother of God, she couldn't be…and yet, she had to be…

"Do not interrupt," she said sharply. I nodded and she continued, "You are of my blood. I believe that your makua, the one who made you, chose specifically to mate with your half-fairy grandfather, it is a combination that has never happened before."

I wanted to interrupt again, there was no way she was right, Gran had given birth to both Aunt Linda and my father, I'd seen her stretch marks and pictures of her coming home from the hospital with them. Fintan could replace my grandfather, but Gran was there the whole time, the proof was in that pudding.

She must have seen the doubt in my eyes.

"The process is different for our kind than it is for the humans," I gulped because she was including me into the 'our kind' group and separating me from the humans. I had already realized that I was becoming less and less human myself, but to hear it from her mouth, seeing what she was, made it real in a whole new way. Not human…you are not human. _Breathe and listen_ I told myself, you'll deal with that later.

She smiled knowingly at me and I wondered if she was the root of my telepathy; she nodded fractionally, giving me my answer.

"The process is different," she continued slowly, making sure I was paying attention, "because our bodies are unable to nurture another life in that way and also because of the secrecy we must provide to our children.

I have many enemies who are descended from my sister Namakaokaha'I, a water goddess and the snow and sky goddess, Poliahu. Our enmity comes from the time that I accepted the Pa and the responsibility for their hatred falls on my shoulders. We battle to this day, but my children also pay the price for my actions."

She looked out over the lava field for a while before returning her gaze to mine, "How many years passed before you accepted the Pa?"

If I understood her correctly, she meant, how old was I when I declared my independence from my past and left Bon Temps with Hunter, triggering these genetic changes that were giving me abilities such as enhanced healing, strength, speed and making heat and fire. "I was 27 years old."

She nodded sadly, "27 years in which you could easily have been destroyed before you truly became mine," I saw some steam rise from the ground at her feet. "Our children are able to blend into the human population and are impossible to detect until they accept the pa, and if they never make the change, then they live typical human lives and are able to unknowingly pass on my line to the next generation as your parents did for you."

I shook my head again to show that I wasn't following her, I hadn't been hidden in any way.

She continued, "To hide our offspring, my female children bind their genetic material to that of a human female, my male children do the same with the father. I believe that your makua bound her genetic information with that of your human grandmother with the hopes that the half-fairy would impregnate her, making a mixed bloodline; for you it was one-eighth fairy, the rest human…until you accepted the pa."

"She, my makua, she put her…her genes inside my Gran?" I asked incredulously, and then closed my mouth quickly with a small gasp, realizing that I had just interrupted her again.

Her eyes blazed with irritation, but she calmed quickly and shrugged her shoulder, looking almost bored.

"It seems unorthodox to you, but it has always been our way. My siblings and I were hatched from eggs, made by the Earth mother and the sky father. I incubated my younger sibling under my arm as I fled my home and my angry sister; that is the way it has been for us since the beginning of our time."

Yup, I knew exactly who she was. Holy crap, what was wrong with me? I guess all of Pua's instruction and constant reference to her faith prepared me to handle this moment. So well in fact, that I was sitting here talking to a goddess and I found myself getting irrationally angry at this 'grandmother' of mine, what good has she been? There was a long enough pause that I felt comfortable asking a question.

"So then she left, after depositing her genetic information, she just up and left and now fifty some odd years later she still hasn't shown up. Do you have any idea how dangerous my life has been? How many times I almost died because of how my blood smelled and because of my telepathy?"

Her eyes widened, "You exhibited mana before you accepted the pa?" I nodded, "Telepathy is not a fairy trait, it is found only in my line. That is unusual, it must be because of the fairy blood. Now, you say that your life was dangerous; did the fairies protect you?"

Did they protect me…hmmm…"Well, some of them tried, the sky fairies" I said with as little venom as I could manage, thinking of the fairy war.

"…and so the shark protects the orca." _What?_ I thought, but she continued speaking, "Some of them hurt you," she said in a statement not a question; she had taken the pictures of my torture from my mind.

"Yes, a few did, but only because my great-grandfather is the prince of the fairies, not because of anything to do with me exactly, except for my being a part-fairy, they don't like that either."

She nodded, deep in thought.

"Now it seems as though I have another who wants to do away with me because of my mixed blood." I said jerking my chin in the direction that my attacker had gone.

"Sadly yes, but he will not harm you. You are mine. I claim you as my own. Even my mother agrees," she looked down at the blood stained lava where I had fallen and again there was a joyful roar from the small crowd watching the especially active lava flow. Holy cow, was that just a response from the Earth mother? I wished Pua was here to see this.

I had to scramble to keep my thoughts together in the face of such power. "Why did he say that I was incomplete?"

She sighed as gently, "That which is me within you, will always triumph over other blood. One of the two known exceptions to that rule is clearly fairy blood. My blood may alter, certainly it will strengthen that which is fairy within you, but it will never fully triumph over it."

"What do you mean by triumph?"

"When a makua uses two humans to procreate, the individual becomes like me, like my son," she gestured toward my tormentor. He was her son? Yuck. "once they accept the pa. At that time, the dormant genes of the makua are activated and override much of the existing human genome. Eventually, there will be no remaining signs, except for the actual corporeal form, that they were ever human."

I was aware that my mouth was hanging open, I just couldn't do anything about it.

"You come from a bloodline that included a human female who carried your makua's genes and a half-fairy, half-human male. Since you have accepted the pa, your makua's genes will become fully dominant over your human genes, however they will leave some of the fairy traits behind as evidence of your original genetic makeup. This combination has not occurred before, you are unique."

Shit, my heart began to pound. Everything human about me is going to be wiped out, leaving only fairy and her traits behind? Shit, shit, shit. What the hell would I look like, be like? I never wanted to be supernatural, I just wanted to be normal. Oh wait, I wasn't unique, Hunter was…

"What is that? There is another? Under your care?" she demanded, looking worried.

I stopped breathing and stared at her, my mind frozen, unwilling to answer her. God she could be terrifying without even trying very hard.

"Good, keep his secret" she said with an approving nod of her head, "if he is of your bloodline, then he will also have the potential of becoming mine and is at great risk, being even less able to defend himself than you. Keep your identity a secret or you will draw my enemies to him the way chum lures sharks."

I needed to move on from thinking about Hunter, I hated exposing him, "So I'll have some fairy traits, what's the big deal about that?" I mean really, in the whole scheme of things, why was that so important?

She was quiet for a while, contemplating her answer. "You will always display signs of being a part-fairy, in scent and in your physical form and your abilities. You are already taking on some of the fairy physical traits, but I can still see the human in you, however that will fade quickly now as you embrace your true nature. You may age, but if you do, it should be at a much slower rate than a fairy, since we do not age at all, and unfortunately you have some of the fairy weaknesses."

I didn't feel as though I was being given the whole story, but it was more than I was used to getting from supes, so I plowed on, "What kind of weaknesses?"

"Look at yourself child, are you as strong as you typically are? You look quite weak and ill to me."

"No, I've been weak ever since we came to this island."

She nodded and sighed, "It is the fairy blood in you. It will always separate you from your home and from the regular company of your true family," she looked so sad when she said that.

"Why?" I asked desperately, her sadness and the thought that there might actually be somewhere that I belonged but was denied entry to made me feel lost and distressed.

"How appropriate it is that you wear my tears. My child, I am sorry for you," she sighed sadly, "but our home, what should rightfully be your home, is within the hot lava of this and other volcanic lands, and it is poisonous to the fairy within you."

Why? Why were volcanoes poisonous to me, to my fairy blood? The only two things I knew fairies were allergic to were lemons and…and…

"Are you thinking it's the iron? Because it can't be. I'm not allergic to iron." I held out my necklace, "See, it's iron and so are tons of things I use and wear at home, I'm not allergic to it at all."

She looked sad again, "As I said, you are the first of your kind, but I believe the problem is that the iron present in the earth here is hot and molten and so it becomes much more toxic to you than in its solid form," she said gesturing to my necklace. "Iron is one of the elements in lava that gives the most power to those of my pure blood. You will find strength from the cooled lava, and from iron itself, but it is poison to the fairy in you when hot or in very large quantities." I knew she was right. It was the only thing that made sense, if any of this did.

My body drooped, the weight of this news was too heavy for me to bear. I felt so sad, but why? It's not as though anything had actually changed in the last few minutes, I was still exactly who I was yesterday, learning this information didn't change anything except for my perception of things.

I guess it hurt to find out that Hunter and I, if Hunter accepts the Pa, will be ostracized from yet another group of people. I'd waited three years to meet my ancestors only to find out that at least one of them wanted me, but that I would forever be denied her company and guidance, because I was part fairy.

Because of what I was, I was to be denied the one 'person' who had finally given me honest answers. I had been denied Niall's company, love and the chance to live in the fairy world because I wasn't fairy enough and now I was denied her love and my home here because I was too much fairy. Plus we couldn't be with vampires because they are too dangerous and want to drink our yummy blood and control us for our telepathy. Well that all just sucks…literally.

I hoped there were more supernatural subsets out there because we had crossed off humans, fairies, this line (I had to figure out what I should call it) and vampires. Right now, there weren't many left except maybe demons that I knew of who might accept us.

"Vampires? You have related with vampires in the past?" she asked forcefully, surprising me with her rapid change of mood.

I couldn't predict anything about her actions, one moment she was angry and the next, devastatingly sad, and with her ability to read my thoughts, she kept me continually guessing.

"Yes," I answered honestly, I didn't see any reason for hiding that fact.

Her eyebrows rose, "They drank your blood and you survived?"

"Yes, they liked it," I said, a little defensively, crossing my arms over my chest. This was such a personal and raw topic for me, "but only a few could identify the fairy in it, most supes just liked the way I smelled or tasted without knowing why."

She frowned, "Now that you have changed, their reactions will be different, so have care."

"What do you mean?"

"Your scent will be stronger and more desirable to most supernatural beings and your blood will probably be irresistible to the vampires. A few of my children who were careless enough to be caught off guard have been drained and destroyed by vampires. Luckily as you learned, the power of making fire is one of the earliest skills my children acquire. Use it to keep them far away from you, the vampires are very susceptible to that type of power."

After the brief moment of nausea caused by the thought of killing a vampire with my fire, my chest suddenly hurt and I had to work to get enough oxygen. I hadn't realized until now, but deep in my heart I had been holding onto the hope that I could someday return to Eric once Hunter was older and safe, one way or the other. The knowledge that Eric might not be able to tolerate being around me broke that tiny piece of hope I had been harboring and brought tears to my eyes.

I looked up at her, brushing away the moisture that had begun to form in my eyes, "Yes, I know. I'm weak, just like he said," I gestured toward the lava field where the male had disappeared.

"No child, that right there is what most of my children, and I myself, are missing.

"Use the abilities and powers, the ones that come naturally to you through my blood and that of the fairies, but have caution to never lose the guidance that your heart gives you. It is a human trait, but one that you can, with effort, retain because it is behavioral rather than genetic in nature.

"Anger, jealousy, reacting before thinking or feeling, and enjoying the power of your abilities will be natural to you, it has always been my way, but it will cause you harm as it has done to me and my children and it will draw my enemies to you. Heed my words. Do not follow in my footsteps."

Well that explained all the anger I had been feeling lately, and I had already begun to slip into her patterns as evidenced by my destruction of Pua's garden. I wasn't sure if I could do what I knew was right. The pull toward anger was so strong and satisfying. I thought of Hunter, my son who need me, and I realized that I could and that I would resist falling into her patterns, but I would need help.

I looked up at…my ancestral spirit. Her expression told me that she knew that my motivating factor was Hunter. It was time for my pity party to be over, I nodded and sat up straighter.

"Do you know anyone who could train me?" Pua was wonderful, but I needed more guidance.

She nodded her head, "Yes, but you are not ready for them yet. They will come for you when the time is right," she said. "Seek out the best and the strongest to train you, but keep your secrets to yourself. Although your blood is diluted some, you are still mine and may be sought out by my enemies."

That sounded familiar, '_learn from all…those who help you_,' "My…my makua said in a letter that those who helped me to escape my old life, my…kupuna, my ancestors would return for me, that they had a lot to teach me. Are these the ones you are referring to, the ones who will come for me when the time is right?"

She frowned, looking upset about something but her expression cleared quickly, "Your kupuna…hmmm, yes I guess you could call them that, although nothing of them resides in you. Both of you have my blood, that is what ties you together. You are the two beings in which my blood does not prevail so you will have a lot to learn from them, more so than my other children."

"Who are they?" I asked, desperate for more answers, maybe Hunter and I belonged with them.

She shook her head at me, "Just as your secrets are yours to keep, as are theirs. They will come to you in time, have patience. Refrain from mentioning them to anyone that you do not fully trust, the scent of my blood in them is stronger than in you, and so they are at greater risk of being found by my enemies than you are. Plus they don't have the benefit of being part fairy to potentially protect them."

Potentially protect…yeah I didn't like the sound of that. Either you were protected or you weren't. I would anticipate that I was not going to be protected by the tiny bit of fairy I carried in my blood; it had never done much good for me in the past and I doubted that it would help now.

She stood up, and I scrambled to stand up as well, caught off guard by her hasty action. I still expected her to move like an old woman.

"It is time for me to go and for you to move to cooler ground. Be safe, my child." She began to walk away and I felt terror that I would never see her again.

"Wait," I said, "what do I call you?"

The ground shook and cheers rose up again from the lava flow as she continued gliding away, but her words resounded in my mind, _You know my name child. Stop hiding from yourself_, and then she was gone.

She was right, I knew exactly who she was. She was my ancestor, the first of her bloodline to accept the powers I was now exhibiting. She fights an everlasting battle with two enemy goddesses and their offspring. She created her home, Hawaii, from hot lava.

She is Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes and I am of her blood, but not completely. I am tainted by the fairy blood that my makua deliberately sought out, and so created a bloodline of beings that, if they accepted the Pa, would never be welcome in any world I had heard of so far. I was incomplete and unwanted.

I collapsed back on the stone and I'm a little ashamed to say that I had a significant pity party right there, but I didn't let it go on for long. I wiped my eyes and stood up as fast as I could began my feeble hike back to the car. The girls should be back pretty soon and I had a lot of thinking to do before I tucked all this away for the rest of the trip.

0-0-0-0-0

The next night found us on Oahu, standing outside the football bar in a line waiting to be let in by the huge bouncer. The minute the plane's wheels had left the Big Island, I had been given a new lease on life. I felt better than ever before although I realized that it was simply that I was acutely aware now of how awful I could be feeling. The girls decided that I must have had food poisoning or been allergic to something on the island and I was happy to support their assumptions. I had succeeded in compartmentalizing my worries so that I could enjoy the rest of my trip and these wonderful and incredibly excited women sure made that easy.

We had dressed up for the evening and we all looked great. I had almost forgotten what it was like to feel sexy, but boy did I. I was wearing a beautiful thin-strapped leaf green and white floral patterned chiffon dress with a high thick matching belt and a handkerchief hem. The bust beautifully displayed my generous well, bust and pushed the girls up so they cradled my pendant in a suggestive manner. After dressing either in work-out clothes or relaxed island clothing, this was an incredible change and looking at myself in the hotel mirror with the addition of my three inch tall strapped heels made me giggle with uncertainty.

I wasn't supposed to be drawing attention to myself, but this really felt good, especially after all the emotional blows I took yesterday. I felt super sexy, something I hadn't felt since Rhodes. In fact we all looked beautiful in the new dresses we had purchased during our shopping spree that day and so here we were, standing in a line mostly filled with men in football jerseys. It wasn't a surprise when we were ushered in long before many of the people in front of us and we congratulated one another as we made our way to the bar.

I realized then that I had never really gone to a bar just to have fun with friends. I had been at Club Dead in Jackson with Alcede, but that was work and I certainly didn't count Fangtasia, that was never what I would call fun. This would be a new experience for me.

I glanced around the busy room, something felt different, and then I realized that I wasn't being barraged with thoughts. My shields were working flawlessly without any effort. It was so wonderful to be in a bar full of people and not have to work to keep my shields up, they were so strong that my natural state was now to be shielded. Unfortunately, I knew that I had to be on alert, so with not a little regret, I pushed my shields down and listened around to identify any vampire voids, Were or were thoughts or other anomalies. No vamps, but there were plenty of shifters. I was struck by the sheer number of them, but they were not gathered together like a pack. They appeared to be individuals, and then it hit me…football. Of course there were shifters at a football party and so I relaxed again. I would certainly have plenty of opportunities to test if I could 'pass' without being identified as 'other' myself in this crowd.

Initially, out of anxiety, I got an iced tea, but after a few interactions with Weres, in which all I got were lustful thoughts and a few neck nuzzles and one teasing lick, as they smelled (and enjoyed) my scent, I began to relax. I ordered a gin and tonic, something I hadn't had since coming to Hawaii and joined the girls out on the dance floor. We danced and danced, together and with various guys. It was so wonderful to relax in a social setting and let go of all my worries about my 'evolution', Hunter and all of the dangers surrounding us.

Beth settled at a table with a young Steelers fan and Christine was flirting with a cute redhead in a Jets jersey. Bette, who was now dating Ian, was talking with a group of girls from Texas University where she had gone to school for hotel management. Macey had rushed off again to the bathroom so I returned to the bar to refresh my drink.

While I was there I made a quick scan of the room and felt my knees weaken as I saw him from behind…tall, long blond hair, strong build, jeans and a tight black shirt. The glass in my hand creaked and cracked and my heart stuttered. Eric. Eric was here. My muscles tensed to flee, following the command of my brain, but my body ached for him.

I was dismayed by my intense craving for him, I had thought that I had been able to bury most of my grief and longing, but I had been wrong. I wanted him. I was frozen, unable to act while he turned to me, as though sensing my gaze and my breath whooshed from my chest in relief tinged with sadness.

It wasn't Eric, but another handsome man. He focused on me with a slight smile on his generous lips. He most certainly wasn't Eric, but he sure had looked like him at a glance from behind. At closer scrutiny, I realized that his hair was slightly darker and had a very slight wave to it. His body was bulkier in a football way instead of the strong and lithe warriors build Eric had, they were only an inch or two apart in height though.

This man's face was more squared off at the jaw and his hands were like boulders rather than the long and lean ones I loved. The thought of Eric's hands would have been enough to threaten to bring tears to my eyes, but I was caught at the end of an intense gaze from this other handsome man. I was enchanted by his relaxed stance, kind eyes, strong nose and prominent cheekbones. He appeared as I would have expected an NFL player to look minus the long blond hair. I listened, he was a Were and he was thinking about me in pretty decent terms compared to many of the other bar patrons.

He gave his head a shake, causing his blond locks to sway around his shoulders and breaking me from my trance. It was a movement that was so unlike Eric that I had to snicker a little as he made his way over to me at the bar. We gave each other a few curious glances, but his thoughts told me that he was uncomfortable with meeting women out at bars when he was traveling for football. He was so transient that he had a hard time finding someone to have a conversation with two days in a row. What a shame for him and for me.

Whoa, back her down girl. What was I thinking? I didn't pick men up in bars. I gave him one more smile and let him go back on his way to his table where he sat in a chair with his back to the wall, watching the dancing. I caught him looking at me a few more times. He thought I was sexy as hell (his words not mine) and I appreciated the ego boost especially since I was feeling so low. I was drawn to him physically, but I didn't like to think that it was just because he looked like Eric, but because I liked that kind of look. Tall, strong and handsome, what was there not to like?

As the evening wore on, I continued dancing and chatting with the different people I met and I didn't sense one vampire or fae. It was glorious. By this time, I had enjoyed my fair share of drinks and was feeling a little devious. My Were was still keeping an eye on me, and I decided to try and entice him a little so I maneuvered myself into his direct line of vision and I listened to his reactions as I danced. I picked up what moves he enjoyed and focused on those. When I had him worked up into a froth, I turned to face him, stared at him intently, Come here I thought at him.

I really wanted him out on this dance floor with me, touching me. I needed to be touched again. He put down his drink and still staring at me, got up and walked directly over to me. I blinked. That was interesting.

He stood on the floor gazing down at me, taking in the bounty of sights as I danced. I looked deep into his brown eyes and tried again, Dance with me. He raised his hands and ran his fingertips down my arm before one rock hard arm snaked behind me and pulled me to him and we began to dance.

I did that, didn't I? Did I glamour him or did I just invite him to act on his impulses? He had wanted to dance with me all night, but hadn't acted until I invited him. My conscience began to bother me and so I pulled back, "Are you dating anyone?" I wasn't comfortable with this if he had someone at home.

He liked that I thought to ask and, he thought it pegged me as a person of character. "No, I'm single. You?" rumbled his deep voice.

"I'm alone," I said, that was the truth. My heart still belonged to Eric, but I was alone, so alone. He gave me a hungry grin and pulled me back to him. He wasn't a great dancer, but for such a big guy, he wasn't too bad at all.

I caught sight of the girls, all of them grinning at me like loons and I shook my head. I hadn't gone on a single date in the years that they had known me so this was like watching their virgin friend's first kiss for them.

Kiss, hmmm, a kiss would be so nice, did I actually have the courage for that? He was so warm and strong. I looked up at him, ready to try directing another thought at him, but he leaned down on his own accord and kissed me on the lips, his hand running through my hair. The minute his lips touched mine, my buried hormones exploded and it was all I could do to not jump his bones right there on that dance floor. Was I that deprived? I guess I was because the feelings kept coming, wave after wave and I was getting echoes of lust from him as well and that just fed my hunger.

I tried to lighten the mood, "You always seem to know what I want you to do," I teased breathlessly as our lips parted.

"I feel like I can hear you whispering what you want in my ear and when I think about what I want you to do, you do it. It's driving me crazy," he said huskily in my ear. He was thinking of finding a private corner of the bar and screwing me up against the wall.

The thought made me tremble; I was desperate for it and terrified of the idea of anyone but Eric touching me that way. It had been so long…three years. I just needed to be touched, to be held, to be wanted, to find someone who wanted me and somewhere I belonged.

A/N: Yikes! What will she do? A little cliffhanger for you to start the week with, but not one I feel too guilty about.

Okay, I know that some of this seems a little strange, but if you read the stories about Pele, I think it fits.

I put a picture of Sookie's dress on my wordpress site. (Choices2make)


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed Chapter 18, I'm really happy you enjoyed it. I got a huge kick out of reading your responses to Sookie's dilemma. I hope you like the choice she made. I think, think being the key word, that this is the last full chapter for Sookie in Hana in this immediate part of the story.

Chapter 19

Relief

S~

I pulled out of the Were's grasp, placed a finger to his lips, wait, I thought and I made my way over to the girls. They smiled at me eagerly; Christine was jumping up and down to catch a look at my guy over my shoulder. "I'm going to go catch a bite to eat, and I'll meet you back at the hotel later, Okay?" giving them a look that clearly told them that the last thing on my mind was getting a bite to eat.

They all nodded excitedly except for Macey, who was biting her lip, looking concerned. "Are you sure Jeanne? You don't know him at all, are you totally sure?"

"Yes, I'm safe with him," I said, and I was sure that I was. "Macey, I've needed this for so long, you have no idea how badly I need this," I said emphatically.

Macey smiled now, she was no prude and knew all about physical needs. "Have fun!" they all said as I walked back to my eager Were. I put my arm in his and began to walk to the door.

He frowned at me; so I looked into his eyes with a temptresses smile, Take me to bed. His mouth opened a little in shock and then he wrapped his arm around my back and basically carried me out of the bar. He waved down a cab, quickly explaining that he had arrived in a limo with his friends.

I slithered into the cab and chuckled as the car tilted toward his side when he climbed in. He was a big guy, huge really. He knew what I was laughing at and shrugged his muscular shoulders good-naturedly. He told the cab driver the name of his hotel and then closed the plastic partition before moving toward me with feral hunger in his playful eyes.

I swallowed and put a hand on his chest to hold him away, he stopped, looking confused and disappointed. "Wait," I said, "before this goes any farther…what's your name?" I asked with a sweet smile.

He threw his head back and laughed out loud, shaking the windows with the sheer volume of his voice. He was so amused because he had assumed that I had come on to him because I was a fan; he was a professional football player and was used to women hitting on him for that alone. "I'm Trent, Trent Zachary. How about you?"

"Jeanne, just Jeanne," I said, mirroring his smile.

He placed a hand behind my neck and lowered his head to kiss me as he murmured, "It's nice to meet you Jeanne."

His kiss was sweeter and gentler than I had expected and it awakened old emotions in me. I didn't like it so I deepened the contact, relying on heat rather than emotion to drive the moment.

When he was gentle with me, I felt the wall I had carefully built around my heart crack. That wall was the only thing holding me together and it had already been challenged recently by Pele, Hunter and Macey, I would not allow it to suffer any further damage. I refused to open myself up to the risk of exploring my emotions in this setting. If I did I was sure I would be pining not for this warm, friendly man in my arms but the cold, calculating man I had shared a deep love with and then left behind in Louisiana.

The cab stopped at the hotel, Trent paid the driver and gently pulled me out of the cab, through the hotel lobby and into the elevator. We stood still; only holding hands until the door opened and he led me down the hallway to a door that he opened with a key card. My whole body was quaking with anticipation. It had been three years since I had been intimate with a man and I couldn't wait, my body couldn't wait, and apparently my Were couldn't wait. The minute the door closed behind us, my back was against it and his hands were on my face, breasts and under my dress.

He growled and his eyes took on a yellow glow as he pulled my bodice down and sucked on my breast. I threw my head back at the touch, banging it into the door. I had missed this so much; being touched, held and enjoyed.

He trembled and it was obvious that he was struggling not to shift. I had a momentary flash of concern that he would not be able to control himself as I had been warned might be the case. I waited while he shook his head to clear it, pulled my other breast free and gave it the same careful attention; he was just fine.

I busied myself with unbuckling his belt and freeing him from his pants. He glared at me, growling as his fingers pushed my thong aside and plunged into me, I screamed in ecstasy at his touch. Now! I demanded and I wrapped my legs around him as he lifted me and then pressed himself into me. Oh, thank goodness!

Unfair comparisons flashed through my mind and I had to force myself not to think of Eric, I wanted to enjoy the moment. And boy did I.

I'm sure the whole floor knew exactly what was happening in room 1163, but I didn't care as I screamed and panted my way to completion. Trent followed quickly as he emptied himself into me with a sound very like a howl. I had a brief moment of concern for not using protection, but it was unwarranted. I hadn't had my period since leaving Bon Temps, and after hearing what Pele had said about her/our way of baby making, I didn't have anything to worry about, but it did make me feel foreign and somehow broken. But at this moment, I was extremely grateful that I didn't have to worry about birth control.

Trent carried me quickly to the bed and we both collapsed on it groaning, his arms and legs were trembling from the intensity of our encounter and from the effort of holding me up. "Holy crap," he panted, "What are you?"

I froze, "What do you mean?" I said, not wanting to listen in to his thoughts while I was so pleasantly distracted.

"You're amazing, I've never had a woman be so…enthusiastic before," he said a little shyly.

I giggled with relief, if only he knew just who had taken part in my sexual education 'classes,' he wouldn't be so surprised at my enthusiasm. "I guess I'm just really horny, I'm a little out of practice, it's been quite a while for me," I confessed.

"You could have fooled me," he said as he nuzzled me, smelling my skin, licking my neck and at the sweat running between my breasts. "Mmmmm, you taste like…like cherry coke…or fresh strawberries…something sweet like that, you are delicious."

I felt a smile cross my face as I fell asleep in his welcoming embrace. I woke an hour later and extricated myself to go to the bathroom and then to text Macey to let her know that I was okay and was planning on spending the night here.

When I was done, I crawled up the foot of the bed and decided to have a little fun. He woke with a start, "Good God woman," he bellowed as he grabbed my hair and thrust his hips. After a few minutes, he pulled me up to face him and rolled on top of me. We were both laughing as he mounted me and showed me what being with a Were could be all about. Quinn had been my only Were partner and I realized now that he had been sorely lacking in the creativity and fun department. All truth be told, sex with Trent was more fun than I'd had in a long time.

I grimaced as a sharp banging broke into my consciousness; someone was slamming his fist on the door, "Wakey, wakey Zachary, it's time to get up." Trent groaned, disappeared for a minute before dropping back into bed and snuggling under the sheet with his arm around me. His fingers touched my breast and my hormones stood at attention again so I wrapped myself around him, kissing his warm chest. I was interrupted by another round of banging on the door, Trent flopped himself back on the bed with his hands over his face and groaned, "Fuck."

"Okay," I said playfully as I crawled on top of him.

Trent turned his head to the side as another round of banging resounded through the room and yelled, "Alright already, I'm up!"

I heard a good-natured laugh and a, "Sorry man," pass through the door before there was finally silence.

"My manager bribes him to do that, I hate getting up in the morning."

I had many not so innocent responses to that since he was already definitely 'up,' but decided not to flame the fires if he really needed to get going.

"What does he bribe him with? I may have a counter offer for him," I said with a smile.

"They won't tell me so I don't do just that," he pulled my face to his and gave me a quick peck on the lips, "I have to get ready for the Bowl Breakfast, my manager would kill me if I'm not there. Hey, are you going to the game?" he asked eagerly.

"The Bowl game? Sure. We have second row, fifty-yard line tickets. We'll be there."

This seemed to give him momentum; he rolled me to the side, kissed me again and hopped out of bed. "Will you meet up with me after the game?" he asked sweetly but with a mischievous grin.

"I wish, but we fly out this evening at eight," I said, genuinely sad to miss spending more time with him, but I had to get back to Hunter.

"We'll have time to grab a bite to eat before you have to go," he countered.

"Sounds perfect," I said and kissed him quickly before slapping him on his huge arm and ushering him to the shower.

I showered after him and gave him another kiss as he rushed out of the room to the breakfast after we exchanged cell numbers, of course I gave him the number to my prepaid and thus easily disposable cell that I always carried for emergencies. Then I let myself out of the room and rushed back to my hotel to meet up with the girls.

The minute I was out of Trent's relaxing influence, doubts, regrets and worries began to roll over me like storm clouds over the rich green land of my new home. I was almost paralyzed with the weight of my guilt. What had I done?

o-o

Macey turned to me, crooking one leg up on her stadium seat and placing her elbows on the armrest between us.

"Jeanne, honey, what happened? You're so sad; it hurts to see. What happened?"

I hadn't been ready to talk to her about this earlier, but strangely the anonymity of the packed stadium allowed me to explore my feeling more fully. Tears threatened but I blinked them back ruthlessly as Macey pulled me into a tight hug.

"Did he hurt you?" she whispered into my ear.

I shook my head quickly, "No, he was wonderful, we had fun, he was sweet and kind."

"Then why are you hurting so badly?" her voice shook, she was feeling my pain.

"It…I guess it just brought back some old memories and emotions that I had avoided thinking about for a long time. I feel kind of raw here now," I rubbed my hand over my heart. I wished I could say what I really felt, that I missed Eric now with an even greater intensity than I had since my first week in Hana. Allowing someone to touch me in that way again, sharing those actions with another ripped the protective lining away from my heart and bared it again to the reality of my world. I was alone and I felt the isolation more intensely than I had for a long time.

"Do you care for him?" she questioned.

"I like him, but I can't, it's not possible."

"Why not? I'm sure you could make it work if you both want it to."

I shook my head, "Macey, I can't do that, I can't go there with someone. It's not possible for me. It's just Hunter and me, that's how it has to be."

"That's not true," Macey said, her eyes stubborn, "you have me." No, I didn't. The tears that had been threatening, flowed forth and I brushed them off my cheeks.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she pulled me into a tight hug. Her words spoke volumes for both of us.

I held her, settling into a comfortable embrace while we watched the teams warming up on the field, but my eyes weren't seeing the players. They saw the faces of everyone I had lost, everyone I would lose. It was inevitable, everyone would age and die and I would be left alone again. That's the way of life, it was normal…I was the abnormality here.

I felt the bony shoulder of this amazing woman next to me and realized that now that I no longer anticipated that age or illness would end my life, time had become my enemy even though it had no meaning to my physical being. Before I had embarked on this journey of change, I was embraced by the steady and predictable river of time, being swept along toward my own mortality and it hardly mattered to me. Days, weeks, months, years…I knew and embraced my eventual outcome. There was peace in knowing that I would age with my friends and we would all face our individual ends together with as much dignity as we could muster. It was the natural course of things.

Now I stood on the bank of the river watching my loved ones being swept away from me, their precious lives running through my fingers like water through a cupped hand and I was charged with observing their joys and sorrows from behind the genetic curtain that separated us. I treasured every hour, minute and second I had with them, knowing that their time was limited, but it hurt, every second of it hurt.

Is this why vampires were withdrawn, why they tried to never love a mortal? Were they protecting themselves from these losses? I had never wanted to be like them, but was it inevitable, after seeing so many around me die, that I would shut down and turn off my emotions too? I wanted to protect my heart and to avoid the pain of watching them suffer, but if that happened, what would I become? I was already too powerful to exist without love to guide me, and I had been warned of the dangers of living without love as my compass.

My love hadn't helped Macey, in fact it had hurt her many times as I tried to talk her out of having another child and with my inability to celebrate with her when she finally conceived. I placed more emphasis on and had more fear for her mortality than she did, than I had for my own life. And so I had held her back, hurting her by refusing to actively support her choices. I had sapped some of the joy she could have gleaned from her life through my actions, my fear, and my weakness. I took some of her precious time and sullied it with my selfishness.

So here I was, standing at my first crossroads as this new being I was becoming. Could I live a life without allowing myself to love as my battered heart so desperately wanted?

According to Pele, my instinct would push me toward anger and reflexive actions, but I didn't need to act on those feelings, my behavior would be dependent on my choices. How I reacted to my fears was completely in my control.

I don't want to be secluded, uncaring and detached, but loving someone hurts so badly. I couldn't see ever reaching a point where self-preservation became my guiding force. I wouldn't be myself.

Even if I tried, I doubted that I had the ability to exist without love for very long.

I loved. Love is a part of me, of my essential nature as evidenced by the intense visceral feelings I had each time I looked at Hunter, Macey and the kids.

Love. It was the reason I fought so hard to protect everyone I held dear, why I still cried myself to sleep with grief over my losses and why I felt pain rather than joy after a wonderful evening with a fantastic guy.

It didn't matter what I thought, wanted, needed or feared, the love was there strong and vibrant in my heart and that took my mind right out of the equation. I didn't have a choice. I loved and so I would lose. It was inescapable…but I would fight against the temptation to seclude and protect myself.

I was already hiding from too much in this world.

I kissed the side of Macey's head and pressed my forehead to the spot I had kissed, "I love you and I'm sorry for holding you back."

She gave me a skeptical look and shook her head, "Jeanne, you're an idiot. You've never held me back, I always understood what you meant even when your words didn't match your emotions."

Now it was my turn to give her a questioning look, "What do you mean?"

She shrugged, "I just understand you Jeanne, that's all, and I know how much you care."

That wasn't all, but I would respect her privacy as she had always respected mine. I looked at the field clearly for the first time, and realized that the game had just begun. It was time to wake up and embrace my life, whatever it offered me.

"Well then can you help me understand why Trent is wearing a Packer uniform, is he a Packer?"

Jamie laughed out loud, pushed out of my embrace and yelled over her right shoulder, "Hey Beth, is Trent Zachary a Packer?"

Beth whooped and yelled back, "Only the hottest Packer there ever was and he's waving at our girl over there!"

I looked up just in time to see Trent wave at me and then pour a bottle of water over his long dark blond hair before shaking his head in a way that was somehow masculine. I was sure I wasn't the only woman in the stands that squirmed in her seat at the sight of the drops of water splashing down around him.

I may be struggling with this life I was leading, but I wasn't dead. Game on!

After the game, we went to the same bar we met at the night before, had an early dinner and a great time with Trent, he really was a great guy. When time for our flight arrived, I made sure the girls were ready to go before I pulled Trent to a quiet corner of the bar out of sight from other people and wrapped him tight in my arms for a deep kiss. Even though it had opened old wounds, I was grateful to him for the respite he had given me and I was ashamed of what I was going to try, but I had to do it. I pulled back and looked deep into his kind eyes, felt a connection form between us and thought with deep regret as I pressed my influence on him, Forget you ever met me.

His eyes glazed over and he looked confused before he shrugged and walked away from me and out of my life. I watched him go, relieved, sad and shocked at the same time. I was relieved because I had been able to manipulate his thoughts and thus protect my anonymity, sad to lose such a fun and comfortable guy from my life and shocked because his actions were exactly what Remy had done when I told him to forget that Hunter and I had ever existed.

Had I pressed my influence on Remy without even being conscious of doing it? Had he been living all this time without being aware that his son ever existed? That thought was both horrible and fabulous at the same time. I had always been worried about him talking at some point, he knew way too much about both of us. What a relief that would be if I could be sure my influence had worked to wipe his memory of us for the long term.

I stayed in the back hallway for a few minutes, listening to Trent and left when I was sure that my influence appeared to be permanent. I wished I could have fine-tuned my influence so that he would remember meeting someone and the fun we had together, and just forget the details about me, but I didn't trust my abilities that much. I knew it would cause trouble for him if anyone who saw us together asked about me, but he would deal with it and move on.

When I returned home, my dreams of Eric increased so that I was having them almost every night. Some were beautiful memories of our times in bed, in the shower, on the floor…you get the idea and sometimes they were truly terrifying and would leave me shaking. A very small part of me was grateful for the good dreams because they let me see him very clearly in my mind. My memories of him were starting to get blurry on the edges and I treasured having a way to see him and remember every detail.

P~

"Stop!" I demanded as I grabbed the remote from Miriam's hand and flipped the channel back two stations. "I knew it," I yelled, standing now inches from the screen, "I fucking knew it!" I was excited and absolutely furious at the same time.

The cameraman moved away from the view of the women in the crowd at the football game, but I knew what I had seen. Dammit, I was going to get a DVR tonight.

"Did you see that?" I asked Miriam.

"What?" She asked, looking at me like I was crazy.

"Sookie! She's there, at this football game." I moved even closer to the screen trying to isolate her face again from the crowd. I knew I had seen her.

Sookie had been 'dead' for three years and Eric was so completely convinced that she was gone that he wouldn't even listen to me anymore. But I knew that the details of the event of her death were not making sense, all the dots had not lined up as they should.

"Pam, you've got to let this go, Sookie's dead, get over it," Miriam said in a bored voice. She too was intolerant of my 'goose chase' as she called it.

"I know it was her, she even ducked her head when she realized that she was on camera. She's in Hawaii! All this time, we thought she was dead and she's been vacationing in fucking Hawaii. How could she have done this to Eric?" the remote in my hand shattered, scattering tiny pieces of plastic around the room. The Sookie I had known would not have been able to damage Eric the way he was when Sookie died. I didn't think she had it in her to do that to him, especially not when they were so tightly bound. Could she have been abducted? Yes, definitely, but if that's what happened, why was she at a game with friends and dating a player? That didn't fit either.

"Pam," Miriam whined, "I'm going to watch upstairs," she said as she stomped out of the room.

I settled in to watch the game for another glimpse of her in the crowd and I was not disappointed. When the announcers were talking about Trent Zachary a linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, he turned around and winked at the crowd, making the camera scan for the source of his interest.

"There!" I yelled to Miriam, "She's dating a tall blond man, it has to be Sookie." I heard Miriam sigh and could almost feel her eyes roll to the ceiling with her exasperation.

I got a better look at her near the end of the game and began to question my certainty. This woman looked a lot like Sookie, but her eyes were wrong as were her cheeks and she seemed to have a taller stature than Sookie. Plus she moved differently. I had wondered at first if the cameraman had slowed the film speed while on her, but then I saw everyone else moving at regular speed, this woman just didn't fidget much.

Sookie had a nervous energy about her, jerky almost but this woman was calm and controlled and she was missing the ever-present smile that Sookie wore in a crowd. I could never imagine Sookie being able to tolerate an assembly this big with such composure. This woman almost looked like a fairy, but she couldn't be, Eric said that there had never been a fairy in Hawaii before; they couldn't tolerate the higher levels of iron in the ground there. Maybe it wasn't her.

I ground my teeth as Miriam came back into the room and snatched the remote from my hand since the game was over. "Do you think that you're just seeing what you want to see Pam? I know you miss her, I know how much you cared for her," I growled at her, "and I know you wish she could come back to help Eric's mood, but…"

I interrupted, "Maybe that wasn't her, but what about the mismatched pillow case? What about the disturbed picture frames? How about the missing cousin and his father that Sam was looking for after she died. What happened to them?"

"I don't know Pam, you said you saw the reconstruction and that Eric felt her pain, her death and the bond break. Don't you think that's enough evidence to let this dog lie?"

Maybe, but I was patient and I had known Sookie Stackhouse. She definitely had been up to something and I was going to figure out what...starting with having a little talk with that sexy football player.

S~

April 2011 (Hunter 11 years old)

We were having a gathering with all of our closest friends, it was a beautiful spring day and the kids were all scattered around leaving Macey resting inside with her new little girl Marie, and Larry, Pua and I talking outside in the shade.

"Jeanne, do you think Bingwen would allow me to videotape one of his transformations or maybe take his blood once he shifts? I'd love to learn more about the hormonal influences of shifting."

I shook my head with silent laughter, Larry was always wanting to learn about the strange and unusual, namely me. With a little training he could work alongside Dr. Ludwig, treating the supernatural population. Bingwen was Hunter and my current instructor from China who was living with his wife and two children in our guest house. We had asked him here to teach us Wing Chun, which is a form of martial arts that focuses on sensitivity and reflex exercises. He also taught us Jeet Kune, a form that provides instruction in skills that are helpful in street fights and is much more flexible in style than most other martial arts, adapting as is needed.

Bingwen was a were-gibbon who was comfortable changing in front of us and anyone else who was interested. This was the first experience Hunter and Macey's family had had with a shifter and they loved every second they spent with Bingwen.

Luckily Hunter and I were alone with Bingwen when I had my first inclination that I might be able to shift forms. I was focusing on him as he changed, thinking of how his bones must have to move to complete the change when I felt a shifting in my face and backbone. I cleared my mind and stopped whatever was happening, but not before Hunter noticed.

He gave me an awed look, _Geez Mom, I didn't know you could do that, I wish I could shift. Could you teach me how or do you think I'll have to wait until I get older for that too? _he thought at me.

_I didn't know I could. I still don't know if I can do it, but I definitely couldn't do it before, _I thought. Hunter huffed and kicked a small rock with frustration, he was so eager to learn new the abilities I was developing. He would be so much better at this than I was. I was so nervous about the changes where as he would probably just act as though he had been doing them all his life.

"He just might, he's very open to sharing his abilities with people and he's very open-minded," I said with a shrug, "he'll be back from Kuai Wednesday night, you can ask him then."

"You know Larry, Bingwen's wife has taught me a lot about traditional Chinese healing techniques, you should spend some time talking with her as well." Uh-oh, I could tell from the tone of her voice what she was about to do. I looked for an escape, but nothing presented itself, so I just sat back to watch the show.

"You look at health and illness the wrong way sometimes. You are better than most doctors I have met, but still you are limited by your Western medical training," Pua scolded Larry as she often did.

Larry gave a sheepish smile, not willing to take Pua's bait and get into an argument. "Tell me Pua, what should I be doing differently, I've learned so much from your perspective."

I chuckled and Pua gave me a scorching glare. She had taken on my Gran's role in my life and Macey and I filled the roles of the daughters that she had never had. "You forget to turn to yourself and your history to find ways of helping patients that no one else can do. You, Larry are from Jewish descent, have you spent the time I have recommended to look into healing techniques used by your people generations ago before the mighty medical machine took over healer's brains?" she said with a small smile, she loved harassing the doctors in town

"A little Pua, you know I have…"

"Ah, see you make a small effort and then give up when you don't find an immediate answer, modern doctors are not just closed minded, they are lazy. Look at Jeanne here."

"Huh?" I said, not wanting to be brought into this squabble.

"Jeanne has no medical training at all, and yet by looking into the history of her ancestors she was able to find a way to provide health and strength to a patient."

I frowned. About two months ago, I had taken Pua's recommendation and looked further into the healing techniques of my genetic ancestors. The only ones I could find actual data on were the fairies. I'm a little ashamed to say that I used my mental influence on our only local Were to find out how to access the shifter library. I know that Sam would be upset with me for looking at this proprietary information, but it was for a good use and I'm part fairy for God's sake, I should be able to get at least a little good from my genetic heritage.

So I read the library information regarding fairies, and learned a few things. The section on healing was very small, but there was one section titled Enemies that caught my eye first. Most of this section detailed what was known about the fairy and vampire wars but there was one small paragraph detailing a terrifying sounding creature called the Scrios. Not much was known about this Scrios except that it had destroyed much of the precious fairy forest that they had lived in long ago and that one would and did kill the other on sight.

Great. Just what I needed, another enemy who wanted me dead just for being pat-fairy, like I needed another enemy. Well they'd just have to get in line. I was almost numb to it now, almost. My only goal was to get Hunter to adulthood safely and hopefully to the pa so he could protect himself in the face of our many dangers. I needed to learn more about this Scrios so we could avoid it or figure out how to protect ourselves from it if we did come across it at some point.

I returned to my original task, but the library only had one page about healing, but I was able to learn enough about the 'breath of life' to try it on Macey. To my shock and elation, it worked, for a little while, enough to get her through the pregnancy, but there was a price.

I remembered the first time I tried the breath on Macey. The memory was as clear as if it had been yesterday.

_I placed my hands on either side of Macey's face, closed my eyes and pictured Niall as I saw him in his true form; I pictured Claudine and Dermot with their pointed ears and their tall beauty. I remembered how wonderful it felt when they touched and hugged me, how they sounded and smelled and I tried to pull those small elements of fairy that I carried to the forefront of my being. _

_I opened my mouth a little, taking in a deep breath and tried to push all the essence of fae I could muster into my lungs. It took a number of breaths before I sensed the shift, my breath actually felt heavier and more powerful. I opened my eyes and put my mouth over Macey's to form a secure seal and gently released my breath into her. I could feel her struggle at first and then relax as she realized what I was doing. Her chest expanded to accommodate my breath and then I pulled away, looking at her sheepishly. Her eyes were wide with shock. _

The shock I saw in her eyes was two-fold. One part was due to the energy and healing she felt running through her body and the other was due to the fact that my appearance had changed. While I was breathing and pulling on the fairy elements in my body, I had taken on a considerable fairy appearance, complete with pointed ears and a bright glow about me. Thankfully I had returned to a more 'passable' version of myself after I gave her the breath, but each time I did it, more and more of the fae appearance seemed to stay with me, and that really worried me.

"Pua," Larry interjected, sensing my unease and bringing me back to the current conversation, "Jeanne's situation is very different from…"

"Lazy. That's what I call doctors. Jeanne knows how important it is to try everything she has ever seen or heard of, everything she feels in her blood, and everything that she sees in her dreams. She knows that to find a cure, she must look for any piece of healing that she has seen, no matter how strange, in order to help some patients. I'm tapped out as far as Macey is concerned, the Western medical approach is tapped out, you know that. We need to find a way to expand our knowledge base, and quickly or…I've done everything I can, now it's your turn," she said to Larry and to the greater world of doctors and healers. She didn't need to explain what would happen if we didn't come up with something new to try, we could all feel Macey slipping away from us.

I stood up and wandered off toward the cliffs, thinking furiously about all the healing I had ever seen. I knew next to nothing about medical healing, so I thought about times I had been healed. Dr. Ludwig had healed me when the maenad had attacked me and after Naeve and Lochlan had tortured me (the thought still made me shudder) and she had even helped when Crystal had her miscarriage.

Dr. Ludwig must have had serious medical training, all I had was myself, but really, she hadn't been the one to help me heal after I was tortured; it had been...my eyes flew open wide, Holy Mary Mother of God. No freaking way…but…maybe.

I'm not sure how long I stood there, staring out at the waves crashing on the black rock of the land before I wandered back up the hill as if in a trance, drawn to the house on autopilot. I passed by Larry and Pua, both of whom gave me a strange look; Pua had her hand on Larry's as though she had been comforting or restraining him.

I was on the lanai when Larry ran up to me and held me by my shoulders, I dropped my shields and could see that I was glowing slightly as I did when I gave Macey the breath of life, my eyes were also glittering more than usual. "Call the kids out of the house for a game," I said quietly.

Larry swallowed, "Jeanne, please don't do anything that could cause damage to yourself, she would never forgive you for that you know." He was asking me to promise something I had no way of controlling. I had no idea what the outcome would be, but my experience with this told me that I would be fine, so I dipped my head in acknowledgement of his words as I walked into the house.

Macey had curled up for a nap on the couch in the living room, she refused to spend any time in the hospital although she now needed oxygen and IV antibiotics three times a day. I closed the pocket doors to the room as I heard the rest of the kids running out of the house; Marie was upstairs sleeping.

My courage wavered. Gran had always reminded me that God would never give me more than I could handle and her words had helped me through some of my tougher times, but I didn't believe them anymore. He had given my Aunt, poor Pam's Miriam and Macey more than they could handle and look what happened to them. Sometimes, it was just too much to bear. I knew that was the cycle of life, we would all eventually die, but it just seemed so wrong when it happened to someone so young and vital, and with children depending on her.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself. "Macey," I said, placing my hand gently on her arm. She stirred and rolled over to look at me with a sleepy smile.

"Hey Jeanne," and then she frowned as she took me in more thoroughly and slowly pushed herself up a little so she was a little more upright and coughed violently. "Wow you've got something big going on, what happened?" she said finally.

"I have an idea, another idea that might help you," I said, excitement beginning to flow through my body as I committed to my plan.

Macey's tired eyes brightened. "Do I get to kiss you again?" she said with a grin, "because all the guys in town would be seriously jealous."

I just loved her, I thought as I laughed.

I took a breath to answer, but had a hard time finding the words I was searching for. Macey waited patiently. "Have you ever heard that vampire blood has healing properties?" It was a closely guarded secret, but the use of V had made it more common knowledge.

"No," Macey answered honestly, "I don't know much about vampires at all," she shrugged.

"Well it does, it's amazing, I've been healed by it a couple of times. Unfortunately, it doesn't help with diseases and I'm not willing to bring a vampire here anyway, so it's a moot point. I just wanted to draw a parallel to what I wanted to try."

Macey tilted her head to encourage me to continue.

"Now don't think I'm crazy, but I want you to try taking a little of my blood to see if it could help you," I said, rushing my words.

Macey blinked. "Okay now that's really weird. The kiss, the breath, that was odd, but this is off the wall strange Jeanne. Why do you think it'll work?"

Why did I think it would work? Maybe it was Pele's words resounding my mind, _my blood will always triumph, _maybe it was just some instinct. I didn't know why it would work, I just knew it would, but I couldn't explain why.

"I just feel it Macey," I answered vehemently.

Her eyes widened, "Alright then, what do we do, get a transfusion? I bet Larry could…"

I shook my head silencing her, "No, I think it has to be done directly. I think the magic of the healing will be stronger if I give it to you myself."

She slowly nodded and bit her lower lip. "Okay," she said carefully.

"Just…just take what I give you again Macey," I encouraged. My heart was pounding.

I closed my eyes. First I would breathe into her again, to give her whatever strength she could accept. I tapped into the fae in me, it was easy now, and breathed into her. I waited, but saw no change and closed my eyes again.

This time I turned my focus on the dominant and ever emerging portion of my nature. I focused on the being I was becoming, trying to find some innate instinct to follow, but nothing pushed me into any one action, so I led the way. I made a demand of my body, remembering how the partial change had felt while watching the were-gibbon shift and I felt two of my teeth transform into fangs. I heard Macey gasp, but stayed focused. My tongue hesitantly touched the fangs, they felt huge in my mouth, but felt smaller when I ran my fingers down their length. Whoa, now I understood why Eric liked that so much. It was as though the fangs were directly connected to every other sensitive part of my body and when I touched the them, the other areas sang with pleasure. I had to force myself to stay focused.

My tongue touched the tip of the fangs, they were very sharp and would serve their purpose. I opened my eyes, positioned myself kneeling alongside the couch so that I could not see Macey's eyes, I didn't want to be distracted and I didn't want her to see what I did next.

"Are you ready?" I asked her.

"Yes," her voice quavered a little.

I found the artery in my wrist and bit hard. The pain shot up my arm and down my fingers, but something was driving me on toward my goal. I placed my wrist to her open mouth and used my other hand to press behind her neck to form a seal despite her slight reluctance.

She allowed the blood to dribble into her mouth for a few seconds, "Swallow," I whispered and she did. I sighed in relief and began to pull my arm away when Macey's hands suddenly shot up and held onto my wrist, pulling it to her mouth. I felt her make a seal on my arm and she sucked.

I was unable to stop the scream of absolute agony that tore through me as unbelievable pain ripped through my body. I felt as though my blood had suddenly become jagged pieces of glass that were shredding though every artery, vein and capillary in my body. I was being ripped to pieces on the inside and the pain intensified every time she sucked. I was unable to disengage myself from her, my body was unable to respond to any commands whatsoever, I was paralyzed.

Macey's body became rigid and her eyes opened wide right before she was wracked with seizures. She released my arm and I collapsed on the floor, unable to move or even breathe although I was brutally conscious of every sound and sight in the room. I heard Larry and the boys come running into the house and then I felt Hunter roll me over, my body was still screaming in agony, and I could feel tears streaming down my face but the greatest pain came from my heart. Macey had stopped seizing and I felt Hunter hold a cloth to the wound on my wrist.

"Mom!" he gasped, "Mom, are you alright?" I finally took a huge gasping breath and found that I could move my body once more. "Oh God, I'm so sorry," I whispered to Larry and Peter's backs, "I thought it would work." My shields were down and Hunter was getting all my emotions and the replays of what had happened, I had to get a hold of myself, to spare him from my pain. Now.

I rolled over and pushed up to my knees and then my feet and looked down at Macey who was pale and being tended to by Larry. Hunter was trembling beside me, I could see the burden of all of our anxiety and pain in his eyes. I urged him alongside me as I walked unsteadily out of the room, not looking at anyone. He knew the real reason we had to leave the room and he hated that he couldn't hold his shields up under the stress.

I led him to the cliffs and had both of us sit on the rocks. I was exhausted and shaking like a leaf, but forced myself to remain awake and to take this time to help Hunter, he needed me more than I needed to escape from my own pain.

_Take your shoes off and place your feet and hands on the ground, _I encouraged him. He did as I instructed. I walked him once again though feeling the energy of the land, pulling from it to shore up his shields. He'd done it before, but never under this kind of stress.

"I did it!" He said triumphantly after a few minutes.

"Good honey, I need to work a little more, I'm still having trouble, so give me a minute."

Soft hands woke me as they checked my pulse and listened to my heart. My shields still weren't working at the moment, I was too tired, and so I heard Larry and Hunter fretting over me. I wanted to withdraw from the pain of our loss, but something in the tone of their thoughts had me grabbing Larry's wrist and forcing my eyes open. He smiled at me, "Thank God," he said, "Macey would have killed me if something happened to you."

"Macey?" I croaked.

"She's getting better," he said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I don't know what you did, but she's…stronger."

I rolled over on my side and curled into his chest, tears and laughter spilling out of me, praying that her health would be permanently better, that this wasn't just a temporary fix. Larry held me laughing as well, "You did it you crazy lunatic woman," he said with a smile in his voice.

I sat up, wiping my face, and grinned back at him, "Let's go see her!" I tried to get up, but he held onto my arm, requesting that I wait.

"What did you do Jeanne? What happened in there? When I came in, you were on the floor with your eyes wide open but you weren't moving, you weren't even breathing and your wrist was bleeding. What happened?" He looked at my wrist, which was now completely healed and back up at me.

"I really don't know Larry, I've never done anything like that before," and I bit my lip, debating about what to tell him. He was aware of how different I was and had never betrayed me so I felt that I could trust him with this piece of information. "I-I gave her a little of my blood to see if it could help heal her, like a transfusion of sorts."

His eyes widened, "Oh, I see…I never thought of that."

I smiled, "Who would? It's really outside the box, but somehow it worked."

"Yes," he agreed seriously, "but it hurt you to do it. You screamed in pain like I've never heard from anyone before, I was terrified, and then to find you incapacitated like that."

I shuddered, remembering the pain, how it burned through my body, "Maybe it was the cost of the healing, Pua says that some forms of healing cost the giver," I shrugged, it was the only thing that made sense.

"Well you shouldn't ever do that again Jeanne, it could have killed you," he chastised me.

"Believe me I'm in no hurry to repeat that process," and I wasn't, I had never felt pain like that before and I was more familiar with pain than most people.

I decided to tuck this tiny piece of magic away with other things I never wanted to be tempted by like the…the cluviel dor. Holy cow, the cluviel dor. Why hadn't I thought about using that to help Macey? I was sure it would have worked. I am such an idiot. I sighed; well I still had it for another emergency, if I could ever figure out how to use it.

I looked back at Larry, "I'm sure you see why you all can't tell anyone about this," I said hopefully.

Larry rolled his eyes at me and said with complete honesty, "Of course Jeanne, and since you won't ever be doing it again, it doesn't matter anyway, we'll just avoid doctors and try to keep anyone from looking too deeply into what happened."

I glanced over at Hunter, he looked back at me with the worried eyes of a child who carried an adult's burdens. Damn it. I wanted to spare him from this kind of drama, he shouldn't have to see me in pain or have to fear that I would leave him. I wanted to give stability and security.

"I'm perfectly fine Hunter, and Macey is feeling better too" I said reassuringly.

"You passed out," he said quietly, "I couldn't wake you up."

"I'm sorry honey, I won't do that again."

He looked at me and the stubborn chin I had grown to both love and fear appeared, "Promise me. Promise me you won't do that again." Boy did those words sound familiar, how many times had I asked him to do the same thing over the years?

"I promise Hunter, I won't do it again."

He nodded and gave me a hug that was so tight, I could feel his heart pounding against my own and I held him even closer, treasuring everything about this amazing boy. I would do everything I could to protect him in every way.

A/N:

I'm sorry, I know I promised that Eric would be back this chapter, but he wasn't cooperating. I wrote a whole section trying to give him a brief moment of relief too, but he basically told me to f**-off and stop trying to make him feel better. So just know that he's still in a dark place right now.

If this is the last full chapter for Sookie in Hana, the next time we see her, a block of time will have passed and then she'll be making a major but brief location change. Chapter 20 is where I envisioned Sookie would be in her growth and life when I wrote the Epilogue in Chapter 1; so if you want to, read that again before you start on the next chapter.

We're looking at probably two or three more chapters until Eric and Sookie reunite! Of course things can always change as I work on the story, but that's how I think it will work out. Oh Boy!


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: In this chapter, we meet up with Sookie five years after the last chapter, my goal here is to introduce us to a more confident and mature Sookie. The first part is from Sookie's POV, but in the last part I let someone new tell the story from his/her point of view. I hope you enjoy that part, I had a lot of fun with it.

As you know I try to post twice a week. I'm leaving on Friday for a quick trip to Florida to visit my parents with my three year old (poor hubby has to work) and will be back on Monday. I won't kid myself into thinking I'll get any work done on the plane, but I can hope. I can also hope for some quiet evenings, but Mom tends to stretch her bedtimes when we get together since our visits are so rare. So I'll do my best to keep on schedule, but if I'm late...it's for a good cause.

Chapter 19 Acceptance

2016 (Hunter 16)

S~

I sat back in my chair, content and relaxed, looking around the living room at my extended family. Hunter was sixteen and a junior hoping to go to Hawaii Pacific University to study diplomacy and military strategies. Although I wasn't surprised by his choice of desired major, I was sad that I wouldn't be able to visit him much on the Big Island. I could go there in an emergency, but not for a general visit. This was going to be the first real step in my process of letting him go. We had already sent requests to the mystery PO Box in Oakland CA to have our identifications updated for our current names, but we also had another set made so that we could place funds into accounts under other names. That way we could go on the run together or individually if our current covers were blown. I had told and shown him everything I knew and had experienced about the supernatural world that might affect him and I knew he was ready now to be on his own, but it would still be hard to take that leap of faith with this young man I loved so much. My mind was put at ease knowing that we had continued our defensive training and were working feverishly on our languages and now had five that we were both fluent in and another two we could get by with. We both felt that the more languages we could speak, the safer we would be in the long run.

The long run...we had been here in Hana for eleven years three and a half months. Was it strange that I still counted the days, months and years that I had been away from my former life? I had been able to let most of my pain and grief go, to put it behind me, especially because my life here was almost everything I had ever wanted. I had friends who loved and accepted me and I had a son, who we now called my cousin since we were looking too close in age to be mother and son, to whom every bit of my being belonged. I scanned around the room, taking in all of the beloved faces and gave thanks for their presence in my life, and yet, there was an emptiness within me that remained.

The place where my bond to Eric had been had never healed. The love I felt for Hunter and my friends had never been able to fill the void. I realized a number of years ago that there would never be a resolution of this loss, of this pain, of the longing.

I had tried to fill the void with Trent, the Were I met on Oahu, and a few others over the years, but the pleasure I received from them was only skin deep and temporary and I now accepted that and my need for it, but I had learned that nothing could touch the depth of the emptiness left behind by the man I loved. He almost wasn't even real to me anymore, he was like a dream, an old memory, but still I always knew in the back of my mind what time it was in Oklahoma and Louisiana so that I could picture what he was doing, if not where he was exactly.

Right now he was sleeping. I could picture him resting; his beautiful face relaxed and peaceful, his long hair tossed carelessly however he fell asleep, a pile of his clothes on the floor beside his bed. I imagined curling up in his arms, snuggling my back into his cool naked stomach, nestling my hips against his, pulling his heavy arm over mine and feeling so safe encased in his essence, his body slowly warming from its contact with mine.

I could sense him slowly begin to wake, fingers twitching, nose sniffing my hair, arms wrapping around me, pulling me closer, a leg hooking around my thigh, possessing me. I could feel his nose traveling up my neck from collarbone to my jaw, his lips gently kissing and his cool tongue teasing. I sighed in absolute contentment.

"Jeanne?" Reality flashed before my eyes. Marie was at my knee, her small hands on the side of the chair, brown eyes staring into my soul as they always did. I blushed, hoping that my daydream had not been apparent. I stole a glance up at Macey who was across the room talking with Larry, she gave me a knowing glance and shook her head. Oh boy, I was really pathetic.

We had learned pretty quickly that I was not the only one who paid a price for Macey's healing. It turned out that Macey, whom I always thought was simply observant and intuitive, must have come from some line of people who had empathic skills. As she healed and grew stronger, so did her abilities. You can imagine how difficult a gift like that would be to tolerate; I could certainly relate. I now understood how she knew I was so upset when I first came to Hana and how she picked up on my every mood so easily; it made perfect sense, but I had never caught onto it because I didn't listen to her much and even when I did, she didn't process the emotions cognitively, they were just feelings she absorbed from others. Macey hadn't even realized she was different until my blood strengthened her abilities.

I worked with her for about a year, helping her to develop her own form of shields to protect herself from the onslaught of emotions from others around her and thankfully she was now able to shield herself enough to decrease the barrage of emotions to about the level she had lived with most of her life.

"Jeanne?" Marie asked again.

"Yes Marie?" I responded, clearing my throat.

"Jeanne, Bette asked me to get her some milk for the baby, but I can't reach it in the refrigerator, can you help me fill her bottle please."

"Of course honey," I said and I followed her to the kitchen, remembering fondly when Hunter was her age.

On the my way back, I found Pua standing in the hallway looking at some pictures of Hunter and I.

I chuckled as I looked at the photo of Hunter with his dark hair sticking out at all angles after our long trip from Chicago. "I was just thinking about Hunter at this age, he's changed so much," I said shaking my head in amazement at the difference between this little boy and the young man who lived here now.

Pua glanced at me and then back to the photo, "He's not the only one, Jeanne. You should take this down."

"What? Why?" I questioned, "That's from his welcome party when he first came to Hana."

"Jeanne, do you ever look at yourself clearly?" Pua asked rhetorically, "The woman in this photo is not the woman standing at my elbow now. You are much changed. If I didn't know better, I would not ask if this is a photo of your sister, but if this was your cousin twice removed. This is definitely not a photograph of you."

My mouth opened, but I couldn't think of anything to say. Of course I had noticed some changes, I knew that I had taken on a few fairy characteristics, but I thought they had faded since I stopped using the breath of life on Macey. Yes, my scars were gone, my hair was wavy, I always looked well rested and healthy and I didn't need make-up, but I still looked like myself, just a little enhanced…didn't I?

I took the picture from the wall and brought it into the bathroom and compared the woman in the photo with the one in the reflection. I quickly turned away from the stranger in the mirror.

"When did you notice this?" I asked, an uncomfortable tightness forming in my chest.

"I notice things that most don't, so I saw you changing right away, but the most notable changes occurred after you began exploring your family roots to heal Macey."

I closed my eyes, so much for hoping that things had returned to normal. I looked back at the woman in the mirror. She was familiar to me. If I had looked only to fix my hair or wash my face, I wouldn't have thought twice about what I was seeing, but when I really paid attention, as Pua was forcing me to do, I realized that I looked more like Claudine's blond sister would have than I did my former self. My cheekbones were more pronounced and my eyes were bigger and more almond shaped and they were bright and almost glittery. Did everyone see that about my eyes or just supes? I checked in Pua's mind as I looked at her, she didn't see the brightness; it was similar to how I could see vampires glowing a bit. I released a breath I had been holding, relieved that I didn't stand out so clearly to everyone, but as I was listening I heard her think that I was taller than I had been when I came here. I had been through a few cycles of clothing as I slimmed down from all my exercise (I had thought) but I hadn't realized that I was getting taller since I wore mostly shorts, skirts and dresses; pants were a rarity for me in Hana and I didn't have anyone from my past to compare myself to.

"How did I miss this?" I asked Pua.

"How do I miss that I look older today than I did yesterday? It's a gift to be able to ignore the small changes that happen each day. If we couldn't we would all dwell endlessly on how we look rather than how we feel or who we are. I only notice the changes in myself when I see a photo taken a few years prior and then the effect is a shock, just as this is for you. We get used to the person in the mirror."

I looked at her with worry, and she smiled, "There is nothing to be done except for removing the pictures that could remind people of what you looked like when you came here. Those of us who are close enough to you to remember don't care that you look different, you're still the same person to us."

I took Pua in my arms in a firm embrace and held her close. This was the family of my heart, Hunter, Pua, Macey, Peter, Larry, Eva and Marie. Our extended circle included Ian and Bette and their three kids, and Christine and Taylor and their son Nathan. I was surrounded by a type of love and acceptance that I had never felt before mostly because a large part of that acceptance came from within myself. I had finally accepted, forgiven and embraced myself. I would not let my appearance shake me, it was inconsequential to my life. How I look does not dictate who I am. I have a family, a home, a purpose and none of those things were affected by how I looked.

I pulled away from Pua, "You're right, I'll take them down and get some new photos taken." I would have to put up more pictures of the rest of our family and limit or regularly replace any of myself.

"Good girl," she responded as was her custom.

0-0-0-0-0

"Is everyone ready?" I asked the group of seven high school students gathered around me. They all nodded and looked excitedly at each other, straightening their new professional clothing we had shopped for on an outing to Lahaina. They looked fantastic, like the young businessmen and women they were going to be. We had been preparing for this day for two months and now it was here and I couldn't have been more excited for them. I smiled at our current Swedish language instructor, Katrin, who had extended her stay at our guesthouse by two weeks and put a halt to most of her wilderness survival training she had been teaching Hunter and I to help the students be ready for this meeting. She was glowing with pride for her young prodigies.

I winked at Hunter, who had a lot riding on his shoulders being the youngest student in this language group; he was ready.

"Let's go then," I said as I led the way to the small conference room at the Hana Maui Hotel. We filed into the room and the adults looked at me with interest and confusion as I was followed in by my seven students and Katrin.

"Good morning everyone," I said, flashing a warm smile as I walked to the head of the table while my group of students waited patiently just inside the door. "Thank you for coming and for devoting your entire morning to this meeting without knowing the purpose. I'm sure that once you hear the reason, you'll be very happy you were here today." I smiled again at my team that had helped me so successfully develop my foundation for the Health Center, which had been such a phenomenal success and made an incredible impact on the community.

"I'll begin with introductions. First, the Pua Kalakona Health Center Foundation team," I gestured to a tall, pale man with a thick head of dark red hair. "This is John Peters, my lawyer who manages the foundation." John smiled and nodded his head to everyone in the room. I turned to a sharply dressed tall man with perfectly coiffed dark blond hair and a short beard, "This is Josh Kelley the foundation's accountant, and this is Monica Chang, the foundation's marketing and media consultant." Monica smiled and waved sweetly to the room, she was a joy to work with and had created pure magic with her advertising and fundraising efforts for the foundation.

I turned away from my foundation team and smiled at the athletic balding man with gentle green eyes wearing a dress pants and a button down shirt, "This is Brian Namovic, he's a Vice President at Pfizer, currently the largest Pharmaceutical company in the world, he's taking a day away from his vacation, so let's give him some extra thanks for being here." I turned to a heavyset native Hawaiian woman with greying hair, "This is Malia Onakea, Hana Schools superintendent and this is Mark Allen, Middle and High School Principal." I gestured to the thirty something man in a Hawaiian shirt and jeans. He smiled and gave the kids thumbs up. He was the only one of the group who knew why they were at the meeting with us.

I turned to the kids and said, "This group of students is part of our language program at the Hana Middle and High School. They have developed a proposal for expanding the scope of the existing foundation to include the school district."

I gestured to the adults and said to the students, "Here is your team, their skills are at your disposal. Good luck."

The students quickly sat down next to their pre-assigned partner and introduced themselves to the group at large.

"Oh," I said before sitting down away from the group, "the catch to this gathering, and the reason I asked you to devote so much time to it today is that the meeting will be conducted in Swedish. The students have been studying Swedish for three years and are all fully or nearly fluent. They will be discussing the issues together and then translating all of the information to you individually. Any details you need to share with the group must go through the students. It'll take longer, but it will provide you with a demonstration of their skills and the methods they plan to use to achieve their goals. Hunter Landry will be moderating the meeting and has the authority to make all relevant decisions regarding the financing of the project."

I chuckled at the shocked faces of the adults as I sat down next to Katrin at the side of the room, but didn't worry. They would adapt, it was for a good cause and I paid my team very well. The rest would participate to benefit the school and the students.

It took a while for everyone to get into the swing of things and for the students to develop confidence in their abilities, but soon the meeting was rolling along at a steady pace combining public discussion between the students in Swedish and private consultation between each student and their paired professional in English. I was so very proud of them, Hunter especially as he smoothly controlled what could easily have been total chaos.

I sat back, enjoying their success and watching my son taking on such an adult role. He stole a glance at me and shot me a huge smile, thrilled with how things were going and my heart stopped. He was so handsome. The dark hair he allowed to grow into a short shag was swept to the side, highlighting his large dark eyes which were now gleaming with confidence. What a change for him to go from avoiding people in general unless he couldn't help it, to leading this group of feverishly thinking people. He rarely had trouble with his shields anymore, in fact, he could control them better than I had been able to until I reached my pa, my beginning, and had some extra help. He was able to open his shields to allow one mind in at a time, any mind he wanted within about a half-mile radius. We had tried it out at a football game once, using Peter, Larry and Macey.

He was a natural and he would be amazing as an adult no matter which pathway he chose to follow. He was so smart and willing to embrace his individuality more than I had ever been, but I'd been making strides, especially since healing Macey. I think that made a major shift in not only my psyche, but also my being as a whole. I had finally seen some good come of my abilities and so I saw myself differently, and so I could embrace my differences with less fear and resistance.

The meeting broke for snacks to refuel the hardworking participants and I was cornered at once. "This is such an incredible idea," Malia said, grasping my hand, "thank you for encouraging them to do this."

I shook my head and squeezed her hand, "They brought the idea to me, presented it to me formally as a team. I had nothing to do with it."

Her eyes widened and a proud smile crossed her face as she watched the students eating and consulting with their partners. "They'll never forget this," she said with a small catch in her voice, "and neither will I. Thank you."

"You're welcome, let's hope we can pull it off." It would work, I was sure of it. The plan was built to mirror the one used at the health center, using incentives such as paying off student loans and free housing to recruit top-notch teachers. The second part of the plan was to bring in working professionals to teach advanced classes. The biggest challenge they would have would be with coordinating with the large companies they wanted to provide the professionals for a whole school year. But they had some excellent ideas and I saw how Monica started to drool when she heard the marketing opportunities this type of collaboration would offer the companies. I think it should work out, especially with the selection of five top students to do a summer internships at the company after graduating. It's a great give and take; the companies, starting with Pfizer, would be foolish to turn it down.

"I hope you're right," she said and hurried to join the group again.

I was right, I had checked into Brian Namovic's mind a few times and found him to be cataloging the ways that this program could benefit his company. He was excited to implement this type of program in other states as well. I relaxed back to watch the rest of the meeting.

o-o

I sighed, taking in a breath of fresh air as I wandered over to the infinity pool to soak up some sun. The meeting had ended and barring any major problems, we had a new foundation in the works.

I dropped my briefcase down on the concrete at the water's edge and relaxed back into a lounge chair as the kids came running over to me chatting at top speed in fluent Swedish.

"Jeanne, Jeanne!" Kylee, a junior whooped, "After you left Mr. Namovic asked to get all of our names. He wants us to send him our resumes for an internship this summer in New Jersey! Can you believe it?"

"He's going to pass them on to all the different groups in the company to see if they would be interested in having us intern as well," said, Dylan a senior who was on his way to Cal Tech in the fall.

"Fantastic, you all did so well. I couldn't have begun to present as clear a case as you did for the benefits of language immersion and professional involvement in the public schools. I'm proud of every one of you."

"Well, we couldn't have done it without you hiring Katrin and funding the foundation," said Markus a Sophomore and friend of Hunter and Peter.

"You're welcome, it's the best thing I've been a part of since coming here."

"Jeanne, we're going back to the house to watch a movie in the basement," Hunter said, moving away with the group chatting eagerly around him.

I nodded, "I'm going to stay here and relax for a bit, have fun." I laughed at his use of the term basement to identify our safe room, glad that the space had lost its fear factor. Hunter often took his friends and girlfriends down there for privacy and I knew that both he and Peter had lost their virginity there. He had a steady girlfriend who was a senior so they'd been spending a lot of time together these days.

I kept the room fully stocked with condoms and I knew by the dwindling supplies that both Peter and Hunter were being safe. I'd felt a little guilt about providing the space for the boys to hook up with their girls, but when I told Macey, she laughed at me and recounted losing her virginity on a picnic table at summer camp. I'd much rather give the kids a respectable, not to mention clean, space to be together to avoid any more picnic table encounters. Kids would find a space to be intimate no matter what when they were ready.

I peeled off my silk blouse and pencil skirt revealing a deep green halter top and boyshort swimsuit, it was one of my favorite suits as it held up in the ocean without threatening to fall off. I pulled my hair back in a loose mess on the back of my head, grabbed my sunglasses and a bottle of water out of my briefcase, shoved my clothes in to deal with later and leaned back to relax under the bright sun.

?POV~

This place was absolutely unbelievable. I'd been here two whole days and not one person had asked me for my autograph or followed me around like a deranged love sick puppy. When Ryan heard I was going to be filming on Maui, he told me that I had to get to this Hana Hotel. I bit, not because I believed him when he said that it offered complete privacy, but because I needed a break. I usually chose to stay with friends or to go home during my time off, but I needed some serious alone time right now.

I adjusted my sunglasses, made sure I was still in the shade of the umbrella and closed my eyes. I was roused from my nap by a sound that was completely incongruous with this setting.

Click, click, click. I knew that sound, loved that sound, but what was a woman doing here around the pool wearing stilettos? I cracked my eyes open, glanced at the source of the sound and my tongue almost rolled out of my mouth. A woman, the picture of a grown man's wet dreams was walking toward me.

This dream came in the package of a tall, athletic body that hadn't lost its feminine curves, toned legs ran down from a pencil skirt and bountiful breasts peeked up from the neckline of a bright blue silk shirt and jiggled naturally with each step. As she came closer I saw that her face was even more striking than her body, bright blue eyes with thick lashes dominated her face, but her mouth and nose balanced them out well and her face was highlighted by long wavy blond hair a few shades lighter than my own. I licked my lips thinking about kissing her rosy lips and helping her out of that soft shirt.

The object of my future fantasies and now my lust, dropped her briefcase alongside a chair, smoothly sat down and reclined herself on the other side of the pool from me.

I smiled to myself as I sat up, getting ready to go over and talk with her, but my plans were disrupted by a horde of teenage kids. They ran over to her babbling so quickly and all at the same time that it took me a minute to realize that they were speaking Swedish, and oh sweet God, so was she. Could she get much better?

I eavesdropped on their conversation and realized with gleeful shock that this woman must be some kind of teacher to these kids. High school teachers should not look like this, how did those boys get anything done when they had her to look at all day long? 'Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad, I'm hot for teacher'...Van Halen's lyrics looped through my mind as I imagined sitting in her class as a teenager...'teacher needs to see me after school'. Oh yeah, I wouldn't have heard a word in that class hoping for some extra homework from this teacher.

She chatted with the kids for a while before they rushed off for a movie and my fantasies were given even more material as she unbuttoned her blouse revealing beautiful breasts embraced in a bright green bikini top. I hadn't managed to blink yet when she peeled off her pencil skirt and heels. I hoped she wouldn't try talking to me right then because I knew I wouldn't be able to string three words together intelligently, in English or Swedish.

I sat and stared at her as she pulled her sunglasses and a bottle of water out of her briefcase and pushed the remains of her clothing and her shoes back in the bag. Thankfully, she then relaxed back on the chair and allowed me to gather my wits. What was wrong with me? I saw beautiful women all the time, every day in fact...women other men could only dream about and here I was drooling over a high school teacher in a tiny town in Hawaii and I hadn't even spoken to her yet. I was acting like one of my ardent admirers who hounded my every move but had no idea who I really was. The idea of acting like a stalker cooled me off enough that I was able to sit back and try to relax again. It worked, after a while, but I always had part of my brain focused on her.

I had almost fully relaxed when she suddenly stood up and waved at a passing golf cart. The man driving the cart stopped and accepted my dream woman's briefcase, sunglasses and water bottle before saying over his shoulder as he drove away, "Have a nice swim!" and then she was walking away from the pool, from the hotel, from me.

Where was she going? I had been told that the nearest beach was a short drive away, so where was she going to swim? I gave her a few minutes head start and then I followed her, too curious to resist.

She was out of sight, but there was only one way she could have gone, so I followed the slope of the land downhill toward the water. There was no way she could have climbed down this jagged cliff to swim here, so I turned left and followed a thin trail along the cliff's edge. The trial was uneven and clearly rarely used, but recognizable enough for me to follow. To my right, the water crashed on the rocks below and to the left sat my cottage. It really was cozy, two separate cottages in each building, complete with a large deck and Jacuzzi and of course a huge bathroom and a bed large enough to accommodate my long frame.

I had booked my cottage so late that I had to take one that was outfitted for vampires, ironic I know and it wasn't even because they recognized my name. It didn't matter though, the light blocking measures were hardly noticeable when opened and I loved that the cottage was right at the cliff's edge. There's nothing like falling asleep listening to the waves crash on the land except hearing the patter of rain on the metal roof. I could only imagine how romantic this place would be if I had someone special here with me. I'm sure Ryan had a wonderful time with the woman he met here two years ago.

I continued following the trail as it wound through a copse of trees, being careful not to trip over roots and rocks that were reaching up to catch my foot and throw me into the ocean below. I came to a sharp left turn and stopped. I had never seen anything like this before in my life, it was a cinematographer's playground.

The shoreline zagged inland just beyond me, digging out a perfect semicircle of land for about 400 meters before running back out again. The result was the creation of a perfect tiny lagoon. The waves crashed at the mouth of the lagoon on a low wall of rocks that had about a two meter space between them at one point where the water was able to run into and out of the lagoon, giving the water within the protective arms of the rocks a peaceful motion rather than the violence of the waves themselves.

At the water's edge was a shallow white sand beach shaped like a crescent and behind the beach was a 50 meter high cliff of jagged rocks laced with ferns and other small plants.

Surrounded by all this natural beauty was an even more breathtaking sight. My dream woman was sunbathing on the otherwise deserted beach…topless. It was no shock to me, topless sunbathing was a norm in Sweden, but I'd been denied the pleasure since I moved to the states. I wondered briefly if this woman was Swedish, she spoke the language, but her accent was definitely not that of a native speaker. No, she was an emancipated American woman.

She hadn't bothered with a towel so as I moved closer I could see the sand stuck to her arms and thighs and I twitched with the desire to run my hands along her sandy tan skin. I stopped walking at the end of the path where the beach began, wondering if she would be embarrassed to be found here topless. Americans were so shy about their bodies.

She didn't open her eyes as she said, "Come on over, it's not too hot and I'm almost done here anyway."

That wouldn't do, not when I just got here.

I walked over to her, making sure not to kick sand on her and sat down a reasonable distance away from her beautiful body.

"Gorgeous, isn't it?" she mumbled on a relaxed sigh.

"Yes." I answered definitively, not looking at the scenery around us.

I watched her rest for a few minutes before she rolled over onto her stomach and propped herself up on her forearms, giving me a fantastic view of her breasts and the beautiful green pendant that hung between them. I was jealous of it and grateful for the American hang-up of wearing swim trunks rather than briefs since I was really appreciating my view.

"I was talking about the inlet," she said with a smile.

"I know. I wasn't," I responded.

She laughed.

"Are you a teacher?" I asked.

"No, why?"

"All the kids, the Swedish…I just figured. It sounded like you were working on developing a foundation or something for the schools around here."

"You speak Swedish," she said speaking in the language of my birth, "I love hearing a language spoken by a native tongue."

Mmmm, native tongues, I could get into that with her. I moved closer as we chatted about our lives and ourselves. She was a fascinating woman and she truly had no idea who I was, it was refreshing.

During a pause in our conversation, I couldn't stop my hand from reaching out and brushing a few grains of sand from her shoulder. She closed her eyes and hummed. I moved closer, this time I tucked a piece of her hair that had fallen loose back behind her ear and my fingers brushed along her cheek. Her eyes never left mine so I took that as a sign of approval and I allowed my hand to continue moving down to her jaw, her neck, shoulder and back. When my hand reached her hip I slowly nudged her backwards so she rolled onto her side, her head propped up by one hand. In this position, I could see her glorious breasts and I ran my fingers up her stomach, giving her time to stop me…she didn't. My hand cupped her breast and teased her nipple with a squeeze and a gentle twist. Her blue eyes closed again and she moaned.

I was truly in paradise. The sound of hungry waves crashed in my ears, the bright sun was shining through my eyelids, saltwater dried on my face and I could feel the slight cracking of the salt crystals as I moved my mouth My body was floating on a cloud of pleasure and contentment weighed down by physical fatigue and bliss.

Never. Never before had I enjoyed myself as I had with her. Never before had I been so completely satisfied, she was like a figment of my imagination, of my most detailed and lascivious dreams. Dreams? My eyes flew open.

I was alone on the beach, my feet and legs in the gently lapping water, my chest and head resting on the warm sand. Had she been a dream? No. Yes. I rubbed my face, it was covered with salt and my hair had been wet with salt water as well and had dried and was coated with sand. Holy shit. Was that all a dream?

I looked down at myself, I was naked and I could feel from the sore muscles in my butt cheeks and my hips that I had been ridden hard. I smiled. She had been real, she wasn't a dream. I looked around the beach and my glee grew as I saw both parts of her green bathing suit tossed aside, the bottom inside out and twisted. Mine was to my left, floating in the water.

I tried to remember exactly what had happened. I could remember the details about everything we did, but I couldn't recall exactly how she looked or what her name was. God, it was like I was drunk. I had the best, most spontaneous sex of my life and I can't remember any details about the woman I did it with; it was like a plot to an adult comedy.

I reclined back down on the sand again and raised my arms, pillowing my head in my hands as I stared up at the deep blue sky and laughed out loud with absolute contentment.

Ryan was right, Hana is Heaven.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: For those of you who have not yet figured out who the mystery man was in the last chapter, I challenge you to go back and read his POV again and resist reading the reviews. I left plenty of clues for you to figure it out. His identity is not essential to the plot, he was simply a form of comic relief therapy for me. (You'll see why I needed that in the next few chapters as the angst reaches new highs.)

On that note, hold onto your hats everyone, this ride won't come to a full stop for at least three chapters and it contains cliffhangers and violence, so if you can't tolerate the angst, you know what to do.

I'm going to try and avoid A/Ns for the duration of this current chain of events to keep the flow going so I have some help for those of you with more gentle sensibilities. No I won't post it here, or I'll spoil all your surprises. You'll have to go to the A/N at the end of Chapter 10 and the beginning of Chapter 11 if you need some reminders to get you through.

For the rest of you…don't peek at the above spoilers, just enjoy the ride.

0-0-0-0

Chapter 21

October 2021, Hunter 21 years old

Oakland, CA

Shatter

P~

We entered the Oakland Sheriff's office and were met by an ominous sight. It appeared that every vampire in the area had convened here tonight. Add them to the number of Weres we had passed on the way through the building, and I would have to say that there were about 50 supes gathered under this roof. Given the high levels if tension that had already existed between vampires and the Westward migrating fae, this was a recipe for disaster.

Sebastian Bradford, the Sheriff of Oakland had called us here to deal personally with the fae problem that had become out of control up and down the Western coast in the last few years and specifically in the last two days. Ever since Eric had been named the vampire representative for fae relations in 2008, we had been called to intervene in Texas, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Oregon, temporarily calming tensions by gathering the fae together in cohesive, and thus happier groups until they moved on a few years later. But the fae had stayed in California and they kept coming and were getting more and more agitated as time went by.

Eric had been increasingly busy with his attempts to calm the rising tensions but this week's loss of two vampires and three Weres on the heels of last month's daytime murder of five vampires who's young nestmate had foolishly drained a fairy had the area in an uproar. Fairies had never been seen this far West before and the younger vampires were caught off guard by the intensity of their cravings and were unable to control themselves once they caught the unknown and delectable scent. Now add in the angry Were population and Oakland was just a huge supernatural clusterfuck.

This latest incident's victims had been tasked, along with other similar groups to gather up lone fae who refused to meet up with Niall's grandson, Claude. Once they were gathered, Claude could use his authority as grandson to the prince to force compliance from the deviant fae and try to keep violence to a minimum. Fae who were kept in close proximity with one another were calmer and less prone to violence. Unlike the case with vampires where the nests caused more trouble than individuals, it was the lone fae who had created this mess and others like it.

Sebastian, a tall dark vampire with a large curling head of hair stepped forward and bowed to Eric and then nodded to me, we nodded back to him and his second in the standard greeting.

"Majesty, thank you for coming so quickly, our fae situation has spun out of control. We did as you instructed and identified and rounded up the isolated fairies; most went immediately to meet with Brigant and the other fae, but as you know there was one unfortunate situation."

"Explain exactly what happened," Eric instructed.

"The fucking fairy killed two of our nest mates, that's exactly what happened," said a short, thick vampire who didn't have much interest in seeing the next sunset. I almost laughed out loud at his idiocy; I had seen Eric rip a vampire's head off with his bare hands for misrepresenting the quality of steel he was bringing into the state for the building of the new levees. This guy was just too dense to be a vampire; he should have been a were-tiger for all the brains he used.

Eric slowly turned to him and gave him my favorite glare. Unfortunately the idiot appeared to gain a few IQ points from Eric through osmosis or some other means because he bowed deeply in apology and shut his trap, robbing me of my entertainment for the evening.

Eric returned his attention to Sebastian, "What happened to the fairies accompanying this team?"

Sebastian picked a small piece of lint off his shirt, stalling, oh this would be rich. "The fairies in question apparently did not feel safe with the vampires selected to join this group. They left and returned to Brigant's shortly after this lone fairy was scented."

Eric closed his eyes for a brief second and his anger rolled through me, he was a tolerant vampire in some regard, but he simply couldn't endure stupidity when so much was on the line. He spoke slowly, another sign that the Oakland vampires were walking a fine line. "You're telling me that a search and relocation team approached a fairy and expected that fairy to travel to an unknown destination based on the word of three Weres in the company of two vampires?"

"They called Claude Brigant himself shortly after the fairies left, and were given his approval to approach."

Shit, that just adds to the problem, why would Claude do that? Eric's anger increased if that was possible, "Take us to the apartment," he demanded.

We traveled fifteen minutes through the city's winding roads in Sebastian's cars and arrived at a nondescript apartment building that was being discretely guarded by two Weres. We were about to go in when Eric's phone rang, catching my attention. Niall was calling, but Eric had not yet contacted him about this current situation, having been waiting to gather more information first.

"Your fae are causing more trouble," Eric said as he answered the phone.

"You are alone?" I heard Niall ask in his deceptively weak voice. Eric's eyes narrowed and he looked at our company, "One moment," he said into the phone.

He turned to Sebastian, "My second will examine the scene in my stead," he gave me a piercing gaze that told me I was to conduct the search of the apartment, I nodded and he took to the sky.

I could feel that he hadn't traveled too far away and that he was angry and focused about what he was learning from Niall. Reluctantly I entered the building with five of Oakland's top vampires, I would much rather be with Eric right now to hear what Niall was telling him.

We rode the rickety elevator to the fourth floor. I took a deep breath as the doors opened and immediately wished I hadn't, the smell of human urine seared into my nose, tongue and brain…ugh, gross. Humans wonder why we don't breathe more often and there's the answer, very few things smell good to us, in fact most of them are extremely unpleasant, so we reserved breathing and thus smelling for important moments. Unfortunately this was one of those moments, so I took another breath and tried to smell around the rancid scent as Heidi had taught me in our tracking lessons.

I caught the scents of a number of different humans and something else, similar to but not quite fairy. It was an old scent and much diluted so I couldn't be sure. Eric had a stronger nose for tracking than I did so I was sure he would be able to determine what this unusual scent was.

We turned right out of the elevator and walked down the hallway to the last apartment at the end. The floor around the broken door was littered with tiny pieces of plaster and we had to step around that debris to examine the three piles of ash and two partially melted iron pikes on the floor. These ashes did not belong to a vampire; the scent was all-wrong so it must be what was left of the Weres. The fairy's scent was stronger here, so I bent down to explore the faint aroma more fully. I had been right, there was something different about this scent; it was unlike that of any other fae I had ever encountered, and I had run into my fair share of fae in the last few years.

I stood up and surveyed the room, two more piles of ash were present, definitely vampire remains and beside one of the piles was a small bloodstain on the carpet. I crouched down and sniffed once more, but was once again overwhelmed by the disgusting urine scent. Disgusted, I took a page out of Eric's book, wet my finger and rubbed it on the dried blood, sniffed it to make sure it was urine free and then licked it from my finger. I let the blood roll around on my tongue for a few moments and then I stood bolt upright. Stackhouse blood! It wasn't an exact match, the human side of the blood had only part of the Stackhouse flavor I was familiar with, but that combined with the small trace of fairy I recalled from Jason and Sookie's blood made me think of them. This blood didn't belong to either of them, but it was a close relative's at the very least.

Possibilities ran through my mind. Could this human with a fairy heritage have helped to kill the vampires and Weres to avoid being relocated? Was the injury to the human that this blood had come from the reason that the unusually scented fae inside this apartment had struck out and killed the relocation team? Or was another participant involved here that I could not smell; similar to the night Sookie was murdered?

I looked at the ashes, and how had they been killed? I'd never seen remains like this without a fire being involved and there was no sign of a fire here. Could a fairy be this powerful? The thought shook me more than I would ever admit to anyone.

My phone vibrated, alerting me that Eric was calling. "Yes, Majesty," I was in the presence of underlings, I had to be formal, and I didn't want them to hear our conversation so I walked quickly to the stairwell and closed the fireproof door.

"Return to Louisiana," Eric said, "I will join you in a few days."

I could already feel his focused intent and his protective evasiveness through our maker-child bond and so I knew what he was doing. I hated when he tried to protect me by cutting me out of dangerous situations. I didn't know what Niall had told him or what he was about to do, but it was clear from his emotions that it would be treacherous and so I should be by his side.

"Eric, don't do this alone, I can help you."

"No." He said simply.

"Where are you going?" I asked cautiously, knowing that I was crossing the line by doing so.

"Maui. I will speak with you tomorrow night," he said and ended the call.

I stared at the phone. Hawaii. It was always Hawaii that came up whenever something that made me think of Sookie arose. I has seen a woman who looked like a mix between Sookie and a fairy in Hawaii, the friends of Trent, the football playing Were had told me that the woman, Jeanne and her friends were from Maui, but when I had taken a vacation there with Miriam the next year, I found no trace of anyone fitting her description although I searched through much of the island. Trent, himself had no memory at all of meeting the woman, it was as though he had been glamoured or perhaps he simply suffered a concussion as was common with football players. I gleaned nothing of value from him except for the phone numbers of three women identified only by their first names from his phone's memory. Two of the numbers checked out to be friends of his and were definitely not the woman I had seen on TV and the other, under the name of Jeanne, was a disconnected line. When I inquired as to the history of the phone number, I found that it belonged to a disconnected prepaid phone.

A woman who looked like the mix between Sookie and a fairy in Hawaii…a glamoured Were with long blond hair…a disconnected phone number belonging to a woman by the name of Jeanne…unusual deaths after an altercation with an oddly scented fairy in an apartment in Oakland.

I wonder…I rushed back to Sebastian who was waiting for me, "What name is this apartment registered under? Who owns it?" I asked staidly, but inside I was thrumming with anticipation. This could be the piece of the puzzle I had been missing.

I waited as Sebastian's second looked in a file he had been carrying, "Jeanne Holden from Hana, Maui."

That's it! I nodded, "We will deal with this matter," I said and ran from the building. I would catch a plane to this Hana, Maui. I needed to know what was going on and what this woman and the human with her had to do with Sookie, other than clearly being a relative. Maybe both were her relatives; one tasted like her and the other looked like her. It wouldn't shock me to find that Sookie's relatives had taken part in planning or carrying out her murder; the fairies had been interfering with her and her family since they had the misfortune to interbreed with Niall's son. It would explain the magic that had been performed at the site of her death if the fairy involved were powerful enough to turn vampires and Weres into ashes.

Niall…Niall must have found out her name from the same records and sent Eric to find her since he himself could not set foot on Maui, but Eric didn't know what this woman could do to vampires. The image of the piles of ashes flashed before my eyes and I ran even faster. As I ran, I booked a flight on a private jet to Hana using my own savings. I usually pulled from Eric's but I didn't want to risk him knowing that I was on my way until it was too late or instead of telling me to go back home, he would order me to do so and then I would have no choice but to comply.

I mentally created a hundred messages to send him, but knew that each one would clue Eric into my intent; he knew me too well, so my warning would have to be delivered in person if I wanted even a small chance of being able to fight by his side.

He would be traveling on his personal plane, so I was sure that I could arrive at least around the same time as he did and the company I called had informed me that larger airplanes like Eric's couldn't land in Hana, so I would have a small head start.

As I arrived at the airport, I could sense that Eric's flight had just taken off. He was on his way. I removed my shoes, throwing them into the gutter; they were ruined already, and ran barefoot to the waiting jet.

Once I had boarded the plane and the door was closed, I took a deep breath to make sure that I was the only passenger on this plane, a simple precautionary move. The scents I caught had my fangs running out and my body tensing as I readied to defend myself; they were an exact match to the scents I had caught in the hallway…but less diluted so I could catch both scents clearly. I quickly realized that these were old scents; the odd fairy and the human had been on this very airplane, probably two nights ago after the fight at the apartment.

I looked at the clock; it was only 10:30. The flight would take five and a half hours, but I would gain two of those hours back with the time change, giving me over four hours to find this fairy before Eric did and slow him down enough to listen to me about the dangers.

Both Eric and I would need shelter so I used my phone to search for hotels in this remote town of Hana and found an acceptable hotel and booked the only available room that was light tight. I was informed that the other had just been booked. As usual, Eric and I were on the same wavelength.

I looked at my phone. Five more hours…300 minutes…18,000 seconds…I sat on the edge of my seat and waited as each one of those seconds ticked by. I had to get to Hana and to this fairy and her human before Eric went into this situation completely blind. He didn't know it, but he was running into a potential deathtrap.

0-0-0-0-0-0

S~ Fourty-eight hours earlier

My head snapped up and I dropped my shields as a loud banging sounded on the apartment door and before I had a chance to process everything I was hearing, I flew into protective mode, grabbed Hunter's hands and pulled him off the couch and into the back room.

"What, what is it?" Hunter asked and I felt him drop his shields as I covered his mouth with my hand and shook my head, terror running through me like ice water.

_They can hear everything we say Hunter…listen, _I urged him silently and removed my trembling hand.

Outside the door of our usually vacant Oakland, California apartment stood three Weres and…I didn't recognize the other two minds. The rate of my breathing increased with every passing second as I dug a little deeper trying to discern what was out there. I had no doubt that these two minds belonged to supernatural beings; they were unfamiliar to me and I couldn't catch what they were thinking all the time in their hazy minds, just a few groupings of words here and there and a spattering of pictures as well.

_Vampires!_ Hunter exclaimed mentally.

_Vampires? No. I can't hear vampires._ I tapped into Hunter's mind; he was sensing three snarled minds, just like I was and two empty spaces that definitely belonged to vampires. I closed my eyes for a moment, overwhelmed with the potential risks associated with hearing vampire minds, but quickly compartmentalized those concerns for another time. Right now I needed to use every tool I had at my disposal to figure out what the hell was going on. Five supes were banging on our door so I would make good use this potentially disastrous skill.

_Listen to the Weres, I'll try to hear the vampires, _I told Hunter_._ I closed my eyes again, this time with a focused purpose and listened as hard as I could to the vampire minds. I found one that was dominant over the other and honed in, pushing past the noise and haze to find her thoughts. My eyes flew open as I heard what she was thinking. I looked at Hunter and it was clear that he had heard similar thoughts from the Weres.

He grabbed my arm and shoved me behind him into the corner of the room as the banging became louder, _Stay there_, he demanded. He then ran to each window, threw up the blinds and looked desperately for a safe way down from the four-story height of the apartment, but I knew there was no escape. We would have to fight, if that's what this came down to.

He glanced back at me in terror, so I took a deep breath to steady myself, I would not let anything hurt him. I then hurried to the closet and pulled out two daggers, both made of mixed silver and iron and handed one to him. He clenched his jaw, nodded at me as he accepted the dagger and handled it with ease and then we both made sure our silver jewelry was in place and secured. I licked my dry lips and tried to control my breathing, we had trained for this moment for years.

"Fae," a deep voice resounded from the hallway outside our apartment, the dominant Were was speaking. "Fae, we've been sent by an emissary of Niall Brigant."

Niall sent them? I looked at Hunter and we both listened, he was telling the truth, they had been sent by…by Eric! Eric Northman who was now the King of Louisiana. My mouth fell open. Eric had Weres and vampires rounding up fae in California in the name of my Great-Grandfather? Anger rivaled with the already overwhelming fear coursing through my body. Niall would never allow this, what the hell was going on? Had another vampire/fae war begun?

"We're to take you to Claude Brigant, he and the other fae are gathering at his house. We won't hurt you."

Yeah right, they didn't plan on hurting me but they had two vampires with them. What did they expect the vampires to do when they smelled fairy blood? Were these guys insane? I checked on the vampires, they seemed calm enough but they were extremely focused in on my scent; there was no way this would end well.

_You're right, this will get out of control if they smell you but they know we're here and they won't leave until we resolve this with them. I'll go tell them that you were here but that you just left. My fairy scent is so subtle they won't be able to smell it. They won't hurt me. _

_No! _I ran to the door and stood with my back against it to keep him in this room with me.

Hunter walked over to me and placed his hands on my was now just under six feet tall and so I had to look up about three or four inches to meet his eyes. _What else are we going to do? They'll break the door down if we don't open it and we have to leave here eventually. I'd rather do this on our terms. They won't hurt me, _he repeated.

_No Hunter_! I ordered as he yelled out, "Tell the vamps to leave and we'll talk."

Damn it. I grabbed the front of his shirt and placed my forehead on his shoulder as I saw the security of our lives begin to crack and crumble to the ground.

"Sorry, no can do, packmaster's orders. Now, if you fae weren't causing so much trouble around here, maybe we could accommodate you. The best we can do is to have the vamps step back a little so we can talk face to face," he offered.

I looked up at Hunter again, the vamps were moving back to the elevator. I nodded at Hunter, accepting the inevitable and knowing that I could glamour the Weres if I had to once I could see them, and so we slowly walked to the door, monitoring the situation outside carefully.

I stood back a few feet from the door and Hunter reached over and opened it and then stepped back next to me. I looked up at two huge male Weres, one blond and one redhead who were standing at the door, each brandishing iron pikes in one hand, a female was behind them with a bright blue squirt gun. I was sure that I knew what was in the gun, and it wouldn't work on me, the iron was a dud as well, but the pike would definitely cause serious damage to both Hunter and I. Hunter huffed and stepped in front of me when he saw the iron pikes, I pulled him back until he was beside me again.

"What do you want?" I asked the head Were.

"I already told you."

"We're not going anywhere with you, we don't even live here. We'll be out of town by tonight, alright," Hunter said firmly.

"No, it's not alright, we have our orders, we are to take you to Brigant's place," he stepped forward as he spoke, allowing all three Weres to cross the threshold. They sniffed at my scent and the female's eyes grew wide, her mind was so snarled with fear that I couldn't catch what had her so scared, but she mumbled, "That's no fairy," and she simultaneously squirted me in the face with lemon juice and yelled over her shoulder, "Come in Daria and Mitch."

"No!" I screamed, brushing the juice from my stinging eyes, but the vamps were both in the room before I regained my vision. "I rescind your invitation! I rescind your invitation!" I screamed as Hunter grabbed me and hauled me back farther from the short handsome male and the taller, older looking female vampire, placing his body between us; but my words had no effect. What the hell?

We all looked at each other, dumbfounded and then the vampires smiled. The look in their eyes was horribly familiar; they were both being pulled into bloodlust by my scent. I stood still, staring at the hungry vamps as their fangs ran out, afraid that any move would set them off. _You try rescinding their invitation_, I urged Hunter silently.

"I rescind your invitation, Daria" Hunter said with meaning, but again there was no effect. Why? What was going on?

The vampires continued to move closer and the Weres, clearly aware of the gravity of the situation, moved to step in front of the vampires, a foolish but appreciated effort.

"Calm down Mitch, you know your orders, we can't hurt her," the dominant Were warned.

"Not just a fairy…more," Mitch whispered.

The female Were said, "See, she's not a fairy, she's something else, can't you smell it? The lemon juice didn't even hurt her."

No shit Sherlock, I thought to myself, if the lemon juice had worked you would be vacuuming me up with a dust buster by now. Hunter laughed at my thoughts despite or probably because of the tension.

The vampires were inching closer, bumping into the Weres now. I grabbed Hunter's hand, with the hopes of making it to the door while they distracted one another.

"She's going to teleport!" yelled the female vampire, "Stop them!"

The danger the vampires posed was forgotten in a split second as everyone lunged at us, and both Hunter and I reacted defensively, releasing our hands and relying on our years of training. I dove to the left, rolled and came back up with my weapon ready, I struck the female in the side, ignoring the disturbing feeling of warm blood on my hand. I withdrew my weapon and responded to the oncoming male Were who was now furious after seeing me take down his partner. His eyes were glowing with anger and he was trying not to shift. He lunged at me with his lead pike, but I jumped aside, kicked him in the stomach and struck his arm with my shoulder and forearms, knocking his arm and the pike to his inside and wrenched the offending iron out of his hands. I used his own weapon to take out one of his knees and then smashed the length of the bar into his stomach, knocking him to the ground. My moves were deliberate and I made sure that each injury I caused would be easy for a Were to recover from. They were only trying to do their job, but we needed to get out of here and away from these vamps.

That was my last sane thought because any higher-level cognitive functioning ceased when I heard the roar of pain coming from Hunter. My head snapped up and I saw that the male vampire had jumped on him and his mouth was attached to Hunter's shoulder, having been just barely deterred from his neck by his silver necklace. He was feeding furiously and the large Were was doubled over in the corner, blood dripping from his head, so I was Hunter' s only hope.

My world shattered at that moment and I lost all control as I saw my son being hurt; I swear that there must have been blood in my eyes because all I could see was red. The female vamp dove at me, her mouth open wide and I struck once again with my dagger, but this time I was the slowest of the pair. She knocked my hand to the side and slammed me to the ground, knocking the dagger to the floor. I threw up my hands, making contact with her face and screamed as I tried to push her off, but she only growled and moved closer to me.

Instinct guided me; I pushed with my power rather than my muscles and suddenly she was gone. I didn't give a shit what had happened to her. I jumped up, recovered my dagger from the floor and ruthlessly stabbed the feeding vampire in his neck and then kicked him in his stunned and bloody face, again using my power as much as or more than my strength, trying to dislodge him. It worked, but not in the way I expected, because instead of rolling off Hunter, he just dissolved from the head down in the time it took me to blink and was gone, just like the female but this time I saw tiny bits of dust floating to the ground to rest in a pile next to Hunter.

"What the fuck are you?" the female Were asked breathlessly, as she limped to the door, holding her side. The males were also up and moving; they were going to go to their packmaster and would tell him what they had seen me do.

I connected with each of their minds, I had never tried to glamour more than one person at a time, but I was sure that I could stop them and make them forget what they had seen. They were backing away from me quickly now so I had to hurry, I ran after them as I tried to push my influence onto them and yelled, "Stop!" while reaching out toward them in a futile motion as though I could drag them back to me. Suddenly the walls and ceiling imploded causing tiny pieces of plaster to rain down on me from all sides. I stumbled forward a few feet, but they weren't there.

What had happened? Where were they? I brushed some plaster from my cheek and noticed that my hand came back bloody. I looked at my hands and saw to my horror that my palms were both raw and seeping blood but already healing around the edges. Oh my God…I did this? No, no, no, no, no. I ran over to the exact spot where they had been standing and found nothing but small piles of ashes and two partially melted iron bars. I fell to my knees with my fist tightly pressed to my mouth, holding in a hysterical scream of horror.

What had I done? I hadn't meant to kill them; I just wanted them to stop…just to stop. They hadn't planned on hurting me; they didn't understand the whole situation and how dangerous taking me to the other fae could be. They had actually tried to protect me, and I had killed them with my…what had I done?

A small noise drew my attention away from the horror of my actions. "Hunter!" I jumped up and ran to him. He was pale and weak. "Honey, I'm here, I'm so sorry," I whispered as I pulled up the sleeve of his t-shirt to reveal the large wound caused by the rabid vampire. I didn't even think, I forced two of my teeth to become fangs and brought my wrist toward my mouth, but Hunter smacked my arm away.

"Don't you even fucking think about doing that, I'm fine," he growled at me. I'd never heard him swear at me angrily before and it really caught my attention and I forced my teeth to return to their regular shape.

"Hunter, you're hurt and we have to get out of here! You can't move around like that," I half-screamed in my terror.

"No way, you promised me," he said, glaring at me.

What could I do? I looked around the room and gasped as I saw the dagger on the floor. I ran over, picked it up and brought it back to Hunter and I ran my fingers along the blade of the knife, scooping up the blood. It was a mixture of Were and vampire blood, but as I rubbed it into Hunter's wound I knew I had been right, it was enough vampire blood to heal him. I made sure to get every single drop of blood off the knife that I could and then I knelt at his side and watched as his skin began to knit together. It was really amazing to watch, I had never seen a human healing before; I had always been the one who was inured.

"That's really disgusting. You know that, don't you? Now I've got bits of that fucker floating around in me." Hunter said, his voice stronger as he looked around the room. "What happened? Where is everyone?"

I stared at him, unable to form words. Instead I just showed him. Rather then being upset as I was, Hunter nodded his head curtly and said, "Good."

"What do you mean, 'good'?" I asked incredulously, "I killed them Hunter! I killed five individuals, three who just wanted to keep us safe as they brought us to some crazy fairy detention camp and two who were sent by…they were sent by… Holy shit Hunter! Eric sent them! He'll know something happened when he doesn't hear from them, we have to get out of here right now!"

"It's night," said Captain Obvious.

"Yes, but we have to go anyway, there's no way we can stay here; others might be on their way. I'll call for a private jet to be ready for us at the airport, hopefully we can leave right away." This was one of our plans that we had rehearsed time and time again since Hunter went to college; we had contracts with several private jet companies that could be ready to take off within a matter of hours and hopefully faster than that tonight.

"Okay, let's go," Hunter got up slowly, wavering only a little. I urged him to sit back down on the couch, amazed with all that had happened in the short time since we were sitting here celebrating his twenty-first birthday and admiring the new identification we had just picked up from the PO Box.

I ran to the kitchen to get him a big glass of water, it was all we had in the apartment, and made him drink it down as I called for the flight and threw our few belongings into our backpacks. We always traveled light and carried bags that allowed our hands to be free. It was just an ingrained habit after years of defensive training.

When he had finished his second glass of water, I carefully pulled him to his feet and to the door. "Let's go."

"Do you really think someone might come here looking for us?" Hunter asked.

"I do," I said desperately.

Hunter walked back into the apartment and began to open all the windows, I immediately understood what he was doing and ran to the back room to get those windows too. When I returned to the living room I heard a sound that reminded me of rain falling on long grass. I looked for the source of the sound and yelped and then covered my eyes when I realized what it was. "Hunter! What are you doing?" I said, in full on Mom mode now.

He had his pants unzipped and was peeing on the carpet and couch in a wide pattern. He went to the back room and I guess he did the same in there.

When he returned he shrugged his shoulders, "I had to go and I figured that smell would cover our scents pretty well. I sure wouldn't want to stick my nose in that," he said with a smirk.

Only my son. I shook my head at the wonder that was Hunter and then gestured to the door, "Are you ready now?" I asked pointedly.

He nodded and we stood at the door and listened as carefully as we could, but neither of us detected anything out of place. I opened the door, deliberately not looking at the piles of ash on the floor and hurried him into the hallway, down the elevator and out the door to our rental car.

I drove as fast as I could without drawing attention to ourselves and we were at the airport in thirty minutes.

We left the rental car in the parking lot, I would call the company to pick it up later and we ran to the hanger. The plane was already on the tarmac waiting for us, as we had been told it would be. We ran through the parking lot and alongside the hanger but Hunter suddenly came to an abrupt halt and I careened into him, knocking him down and tumbling on top of him in a tangled pile.

I looked up from my prone position on the ground and into the eyes of a beautiful brown haired fairy. He was staring down at me with a large sword in his hand, his eyes wide with tension. I screamed and tried to scramble in front of Hunter but he rolled me aside, jumped up and dove at the fairy. I jumped up, pulling my dagger from the pocket of my backpack but before Hunter could reach him, the fairy popped away.

I grabbed Hunter's hand again and pulled him to the airplane, looking every which way, expecting to be attacked at any second, but somehow we made it without running into anyone else. We clambered up the stairs and told the pilot to leave as soon as possible. I helped Hunter down onto one of the two couches lining the sides of the small jet and and I stood guard over him as the plane taxied and took off. Hunter's wound had re-opened and his blood loss had taken a toll on him, so he closed his eyes and was out within a few seconds.

Once we were about twenty minutes into the flight, I figured we were over the ocean and I relaxed marginally. I didn't have any proof that we were any safer from fairies here than over the land, but I felt more secure.

I sat down and took what felt like my first breath in hours. The breath turned into gasps for air and then into sobs as the shock, grief and fear broke through my defenses and drained me of all my courage and energy. I curled up on the couch opposite from the one I had placed Hunter on, wrapped my arms around my head and tried to block out the world. I still couldn't believe what had happened, what I had done.

I felt Hunter pick up my head and shoulders and wrap his arm around my trunk, holding me close to him, I cried myself out wrapped in my grown son's arms.

"You had to do it. You know that," he said with the certainty of a young man full of testosterone and way too little experience and humility.

"No, I didn't Hunter, I could have modified their memories. I didn't have to kill them, but I…I lost control, I was too scared and angry that you had been hurt and…whatever this is in me…this monster that I am…"

"Shut-up," he said, I stared at him in disbelief, "You can blame yourself all you want, but I don't want to hear it. What you did saved our lives. Do you really think that you could have glamoured all of them before one of them caught on to what you were doing and attacked us? Yes, you have to work on disciplining your powers, but you did what you had to do to survive and I for one am grateful. Those vampires were going to kill us, the rest was just a series of events that neither of us could control."

"Those three probably had children, wives, a husband, parents and…"

Hunter cut me off, "So do you and if I have to choose them or you, I choose you."

His statement reminded me of thoughts I used to have years ago before I left Bon Temps and my head swam. I was back at the beginning, right where I was before. I hadn't fixed anything; all I had done was buy us some time until Hunter had grown up enough to have a chance of defending himself.

I should be relieved that he was grown, that's what I had wanted all these years, but now that the danger was here, I needed more time. I wanted our security and our lives back. I didn't want us to constantly be fighting for our lives again, Hunter was still so young, he shouldn't be entering this dangerous world, he hadn't even accepted his pa yet, so he was as fragile as I had been before I left Bon Temps. At least I could heal from any injuries I received in a fight.

Anger began to replace my more fragile emotions and I sat up more, "What in the world were you thinking by jumping in front of me when we saw the fairy? He could have killed you."

He raised one eyebrow at me, I withdrew from the hauntingly familiar expression, "He could have killed you too, he wasn't looking at me, he was looking at you."

"So? I never want you to do that again. Do you understand me Hunter? Never put yourself in danger for me. That's not what I want."

He scoffed at me, "Then it sucks for you, 'cause it's what I want. There's no way in hell I'm going to stand by and watch someone hurt you, that's not how you raised me. We learned how to fight side by side, protecting each other. Was that all a show? All a lie?"

"No," but now that the danger was real, I didn't want it anymore.

Hunter read my thoughts. "Too bad."

"Damn it Hunter you're not strong enough! You're not ready for these battles, they're my battles and I don't want you fighting them for me. I want you to go back to college or go somewhere else and get as far away from me as possible. They're rounding up fairies! Eric is sending Weres and vampires to round up fae…what is he doing? What will happen to them and where is Niall in all of this?"

"I don't know, but I'm taking a leave of absence from school and sticking around until I'm sure you're safe."

I jumped up, frustrated and scared. "You don't understand Hunter, I don't think this is an isolated event, and even if it was going to be, it isn't anymore. Don't you get it? I murdered two vampires and three Weres who were doing official business for a King and a packmaster. They aren't going to let this go and I wouldn't expect them to."

Hunter broke from our argument and was lost in thought for a minute. "Do you really think they'll find out what happened in the apartment?"

Terror ran through my chest, "Yes. That group must have found us by following my scent, there's no reason to think that others won't follow the same trail."

"What name did you purchase it under?"

I tried to swallow but failed, "Jeanne Holden," I squeaked.

"How about the fairy? Do you think he'll figure out where this plane was going?"

The terror in my chest became even more intense, "Probably," I whispered. Our eyes met and we both reached for our cell phones at the same time, I was slightly faster since it was closer to me. I hit speed dial and waited anxiously for my call to be answered.

"Hello?"

"Eva, it's Jeanne, put your Mom or Dad on the line right away please, I need to speak with them."

"Sure, are you alright?"

"Yes, but something's happened, please hurry." There was silence for a few seconds before I heard one of my favorite voices. The dichotomy between the comfort her voice gave me and the fear that was devouring me was overwhelming.

"Jeanne? What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Yes Macey, but we had some trouble in Oakland. We're on our way home right now, flying into Hana on a private jet. I need you to do a few things for me. Just listen, okay."

"Okay but you're scaring me," she said and I could hear it in her voice.

"I'm sorry," and I was, more than I could say, "we need you to drop my car off at the airfield and leave my keys under the driver's mat. Then go home and pack a week's worth of things you and your family might need and go over to our place and bunker down in the safe house. Don't lock the door, just close it and wait for us. We'll be arriving around two in the morning and will join you as soon as we get there."

"Jeanne, what's happening?"

"Hunter and I ran into some danger and we're afraid that it's going to follow us home. I want everyone who's close to us to be tucked away so they can't hurt you or try to force information out of you. Call Pua and make sure she comes too, no one else knows enough about us to be in danger." I checked with Hunter and he urged me on, "Get over there as quickly as you can and stay inside since it's dark already."

"Oh my God," she whispered, just having put two and two together to understand the type of danger we were in. She took a deep breath, "Do you need anything from your house?"

I looked at Hunter, we had a good supply of weapons, food, and clothing in the safe house, he shook his head, "No, we have everything we need."

"Okay Jeanne, we'll be waiting for you. Please be careful."

"We'll try," I said. I couldn't lie and I wanted her to know how very serious this situation was.

"We love you both," she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

"We love you all too. Be quick Macey. Bye."

I hung up the phone and looked back at Hunter, my despair was crushing me. "We can't go back there, we can't bring this down on them. I'll talk with the pilot and get him to turn around and go somewhere else." I was desperate to keep dangers away from home.

"It won't matter, the original flight plan was for Hana. If anyone is following us, they'll go there no matter where we are. We have to go now or we're leaving them completely vulnerable." Shit, he was right. "Plus," he continued, "if your suspicions are right, fairies won't be able to go to Maui because of the volcanic soil and the iron, so all we'll have to deal with will be vampires and Weres."

I gave a desperate laugh. "Well, at least they're more predictable than the fairies," he said reasonably.

He was right, but it was still beyond awful. "Hunter…I want you to promise me that you'll stay out of harms way, and only enter a fight if our friends are in danger. I'll hold my own."

"Fuck that," he answered, "then I want you to hide in the basement since you're the one they're looking for."

We glared at each other for a long while and then answered simultaneously.

"No." Hunter said flatly.

"I can't." I whispered.

Tears filled my eyes again as I realized that there wasn't anything I could do to keep him from fighting with me, he was determined to stand by my side…my son, my cousin, my friend, my heart, my purpose, my life.

I placed both of my hands on either side of his strong face, the face of a man, not a boy anymore and looked into his dark eyes for a long while, "It's beginning," I whispered and then I pulled him into my embrace and held the most important part of my life close to me while I still could.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 25

Reunion

"My God Jeanne! What happened to him?" Macey cried as I pulled a mostly unconscious Hunter in through the door of the safe room and slammed it closed behind us. I didn't engage the lock, but would keep close to the mechanism and constantly listen for minds so I could activate it if needed.

Larry rushed over and helped me hoist Hunter onto the couch, expertly placing his feet up on a pile of pillows and his head flat on the couch cushions. I remembered from our first aid classes that this was a position recommended for people who were in shock or who had suffered blood loss. Hunter managed to slur, "Mmmm, fine," before becoming way too quiet again. I was so grateful that Larry was here to take over, I was a miserable excuse for a healer no matter what Pua said and I was so tired and stressed, I could hardly think straight as it was.

Hunter had taken a turn for the worse on the flight over despite my obviously inept ministrations and I had needed to basically carry him to the car and then to this room, he was so weak. The vampire must have taken more of his blood than I had realized.

"Help me get his shirt off," Larry demanded. He was in his medical mode so gentle Larry was gone and he was replaced by the tough no-nonsense doctor Larry. I pulled the t-shirt off of Hunter's good arm first, then over his head and lastly I peeled it carefully from his injured arm. The wound had re-sealed itself on the flight, but it still looked raw and painful.

Larry pulled on gloves and then poked and prodded at the edges of the wound. I had to restrain myself from trying to protect Hunter as he winced from Larry's inspection. I hated that I had allowed him to be hurt. I crouched down at the side of the couch and ran my fingers along his pale face and through his soft, dark hair and then I leaned over and kissed his forehead as I had so many times when he was a little boy. I promised myself at that moment that I would find a way to keep him safe and out of harm's way. He would hate me for it, but I would find a way…somehow.

"What caused this?" Larry asked as he continued to inspect Hunter's arm. I debated telling the truth, knowing that every piece of information Larry and Macey acquired about the supernatural world would put them in more danger. But I knew they needed the facts so they could take the appropriate safety measures, plus Macey had pretty much figured it out already from my call. At least the girls and Pua were asleep in the larger bedroom so I could protect them from the fear this information might bring. However, they too would need to know eventually.

"Vampire," I said quietly.

Larry's hand flinched and then he nodded grimly. "When was he bitten and how much blood do you think he lost?"

I looked at the clock, "We were attacked about six and a half hours ago and it took me about ten seconds to free him, but the vampire was really drinking fast. Larry, I don't understand, he was able to run to the airplane and he was thinking clearly for a while, but then he fell asleep for the rest of the flight. I'm worried." I was more than worried, he hadn't said a thing except for his feeble mumbling since I encouraged him to rest after our conversation on the plane.

Larry nodded, retrieved a large medical bag from the corner of the room and removed a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope. I backed away to give him some space and was immediately swept up into a huge hug from Macey.

She didn't say anything, she didn't have to, the simple act of holding me close helped to purge a little of the poison and fear from my heart and rebuilt some of my courage and hope. I relaxed for a moment in her arms and quickly brushed away the few tears that escaped from my eyes before we parted as Larry stepped away from Hunter.

"He needs a transfusion, his blood pressure is too low. It's common that people in extreme situations can function for a while with low blood supply due to the adrenaline, fast heart rate and enhanced lung function that come with hyperarousal, but he's struggling now. He could recover from the blood loss naturally, but it would take days and I think that in this situation, he needs to recover as quickly as possible."

Larry had apparently done a lot of thinking while he was working on Hunter. "I'm putting in a call to the Health Center to have someone drive over three pints of O+ blood and the necessary supplies, but I won't do it before sunrise. He'll have to wait until then, I won't put anyone else in danger."

"Thank you Larry," I said and gave him a big hug.

He held me close, "Vampires?" he asked quietly.

I nodded and he sighed deeply. I couldn't have said it any better.

o-o-o-o

Hunter responded well to the transfusion and was up and about late that afternoon. We all ventured outside and had a barbecue in the backyard with both Hunter and I listening for incoming minds. We all needed this break; the tension inside the safe room was eating at us. Larry and Macey had sat the girls down that morning and explained the situation, trying to impress the extreme need for caution without terrifying them. I wished Peter were here, he was always good for diffusing tension, but he was still at college in New York City and his parent's had insisted that he not be told anything about the current situation. Pua listened for a few minutes and then sought me out where I was sitting in the entryway, my back propped against the cold wall and my exhausted head resting on my bent knees.

I felt her soft hand touch my shoulder, "Listen to your ancestors, they will guide you," she said in her tough voice that was now weakened by age, and then she walked away leaving me blessedly alone. I was grateful to her for not making me talk, I just needed to focus and try to conserve some energy. I sighed at her words, I didn't think my ancestors would have very many answers for me right now and if they did, I wasn't sure I wanted to hear them given Pele's predilection for violence and costly mistakes.

As nightfall approached, we re-entered what was already feeling more like our prison than our refuge. Hunter stood guard first, and I tried to rest, but couldn't, I was too wound up, so I took over the watch. Hunter needed to rest anyway.

What I didn't tell anyone but Hunter was that I was nervous about being in such close confines with everyone. I didn't trust my ability to control my powers in my extreme state of sleep deprivation, especially with tensions mounting inside. I couldn't be sure that I wouldn't get upset and lose control, so I stayed on watch all night and thankfully nothing happened.

When morning arrived, I finally crawled into bed and fell asleep after receiving Hunter's promise that he would keep a close watch over everyone. I woke at nine, only three hours after going to bed, to hearing the girls fighting in the main room. It was clear that our situation was driving everyone crazy. I forced my tired body out of bed and organized delivery of pizza for us all to eat outside at lunchtime. The girls invited some friends over for a day of relaxation at our house, risky I know, but they needed the break from one another. I couldn't keep them here if they were so irritable and I needed them here where it was safe. The girls had a relaxing day, but night eventually fell and we were once again sequestered.

Marie, Eva and Hunter agreed on two movies for everyone to watch and they gathered with popcorn and chips while I sat by the door again and listened. How long could we continue this routine? Everyone was taking it as well as could be expected, but tempers were already flying and even I was getting itchy from being trapped down here.

Hunter covered the watch during the chick flick and I took a much needed nap and then relieved him about five hours later and told him to get some rest. The girls had bunked in the bedroom with their parents and Pua was in the smaller room. Hunter stood up, stretched, gave me a tired smile and then crashed on the couch in the Living Room with a fleece Packer blanket draped over him. He was asleep in minutes.

I sat in the doorway of the safe room, breathing in the fresh air and trying to get a glimpse of the stars above. I loved nights here in Hawaii; the sky was just as interesting and beautiful at night as it was in the day. Tonight was an amazingly clear night and thousands of familiar stars twinkled down on me, shining brighter than usual due to the small sliver of moon in the sky. I always had better perspective on things when I could see or touch the nature around me.

Forty-eight hours and nothing had happened yet, not a thing. That was more than enough time for the Oakland supernatural community to gather and mount an attack on us. Had I overreacted? I really didn't think I had; I knew Weres and I definitely knew Eric and neither of them would let the death of friends or underlings go unpunished. No, maintaining high alert and protecting ourselves in the safe room was the right choice. I was just getting antsy.

Everything was quiet behind me, only Macey was awake and worrying. She hadn't been sleeping much, being too worried about everything to relax. She was worrying about all of us, but also replaying my first few months here, trying to understand my reactions better now that she knew how terrifying it was to be hunted by supes.

I couldn't stand hearing her and seeing my own suffering; I needed some air. I stood up, stepped outside into the night and the warm breeze lifted my hair as though it were greeting me and I craved even more comfort. I closed the door to the safe room most of the way, leaving it open only an inch or two and walked out over the lawn to my cliffs and the rocks that provided me with so much solace.

I sat down on my favorite rock along the cliff and the sound of the waves crashing below pulled at me, slowing my breaths until they matched the pace of the ebb and flow of the water. The sound was hypnotic and incredibly welcome. Home. I was finally home. The rocks called to me and gave me their strength, the warm air blew away my tension and the star-dotted sky filled me with peace. I reclined back, my body hugging the earth and took a deep breath. I was relieved to be back out here, where I felt so in tune with the natural elements.

I tried to relax my mind and I revelled in the silence. From this distance I could still hear Macey, but it was easier to ignore her thoughts while still listening for other minds. I closed my eyes, continued my deep breathing and reached out to my fore bearers, asking them to give me strength and wisdom. I needed guidance to learn how to control my abilities and to figure out how to keep my family safe and happy.

I'm not sure how long I was there, but my body was deeply relaxed when something on the outskirts of my mind drew me back to reality. At first I couldn't put a finger on what had aroused me so I listened as hard as I could, homing in on the disturbance.

I was already on my feet when I figured it out. Vampire! There was a vampire mind moving in quickly. I knew it! I knew they would come for me. I took off running toward the safe room, my heart pounding in my chest. I had been such an idiot not to bring out any weapons and the nearest ones we had hidden in the yard were in the opposite direction from my goal. As I ran, I could feel the vampire getting closer and closer and then I could see myself in the hazy mind I was observing. A new kind of terror shot through me when I saw myself through the predator's eyes, and I ran even faster.

I ran toward the hidden entryway, and as I neared the door I knew that there wouldn't be enough time to get inside, close the door and activate the lock without allowing the vampire in behind me. I didn't trust that my invitation would hold since it hadn't worked in Oakland. So instead, I slammed the door shut and activated the lock from outside. As I the door swung closed, I heard Macey scream, "Jeanne!" before silence fell.

I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I heard the lock engage, knowing that everyone inside would be safe for at least seven days. I allowed my fingers to linger for a precious second on the cool silver of the door, making one last desperate connection with those held safe within.

'_What are you doing? What's happening?' _Hunter mentally yelled at me.

I answered him as I began running as fast as I could toward the main house and the closest weapons,_ 'Vampire. Stay put. Keep them safe.'_

_No! Let me out! Let me the fuck out of here! Don't do this alone! I can help you!_

I tried to block him out so I could focus and he stopped forcing his thoughts on me, knowing that I needed every bit of mental concentration I could possibly recruit. I ran as fast as I could, but I could still feel the vampire mind closing in on me. I darted between trees and around bushes, trying to gain some distance, leaping over the low walls and benches that had been my refuge and my home for so long. I could see the steps to the lanai only fifty feet in front of me when I felt the mind stop moving and hold its position. I stopped too, listening; trying to decipher what was causing the pause, but all I could get was that it was waiting for someone else.

More vampires! I had a chance of defeating one vampire at a time, but no more than that. This was the advance team, the surveillance unit for the real fighters. I gritted my teeth, my heart pounding in my chest. The idea of someone spying on us, making it easier for others to hurt us drove the fear right out of me. I felt an internal shift occur within me and my instincts took over, bolstered by my newfound fury.

I reversed my direction, barreling myself toward the vampire mind, gathering my strength and power. Instinctually, I knew what to do, how to do it and I had no compulsions about protecting my family from this immediate danger. I reached out to nature and could feel the elements readily offering me their assistance now that I was requesting it in a time of need. The energies of nature began to flow into me and I felt incredible. I was light, strong and unstoppable. My limbs were surging with strength, my heart pounding capably, providing each muscle and nerve with the oxygen it needed; I sensed no fatigue or weakness anywhere in my body. I was an amazing physical machine and I knew exactly what to do to defeat my prey now that I was the hunter rather than the hunted.

Righteous indignation and the paramount need to protect my family fed my hunger to destroy my enemy. This was my home, my land, and my family. I would not allow anything to threaten us. I was getting closer; I could feel it and I sensed the fear running through the mind that was now my only point of focus. I felt a smile cross my lips as I gathered my powers to my chest and readied my arms to convey a strike at my target.

'Gotcha!' I thought as I read my prey's next desperate thought of strategy; my knowledge of the terrain gave me an advantage. I catapulted over a grouping of bushes, turned around in mid-air and landed in a crouch on a rock outcropping. My feet were firmly planted, my hips low in an offensive crouch, my arms ready to fight and I heard a form of a snarl leave my gritted teeth as I intercepted the pathway of the frightened vampire.

She skidded to a halt, dirt and small rocks flying at my legs as her bare and bloodied feet dug into the pebble-strewn ground. Her straight blond hair flew forward, momentarily blocking her face from view before settling on her shoulders. She raised her hands to her chest level and retracted her fangs immediately so I could see that she didn't have a weapon.

Have you ever thrown on the brakes of your car when you were traveling at fifty miles an hour? Then you know the feeling that ripped through me as I tried to pull back on my powers and stop the series of events that had been, moments before almost preordained. It hurt like crazy to stop the release of the power I had ready to throw at her since I had recruited so much extra energy in my pursuit and I felt the earth crack beneath my feet as the energy overflowed and sought some form of release.

I know that my mouth fell open slightly in shock as I realized that the vampire I had been hunting and planning on killing was Pam. Pam! I should have expected this, but I hadn't. I had been sure that the vampires who would come looking for us would be from Oakland; I never imagined that Pam would be sent to find me. And then it hit me, like a truckload of bricks, if Pam was here then…oh God. I stood up and Pam lowered her hands. I tossed out my mental net again, but didn't pick up on any other minds. She was here alone…so far. If Eric was anywhere nearby, he had definitely felt her fear and would be rushing to her aid at any minute.

She stared at me, her round blue eyes wide in astonishment. She smiled a little in triumph as she watched my initial reactions to seeing her, but the smile faded as she looked at me more thoroughly. Despite her instincts telling her that I was in fact the Sookie she had known, what she was seeing didn't make sense to her.

"Sookie?" she asked hopefully.

That one word alone threw me back in time fifteen years, making me feel like a child and stripping me bare of my identity. No. I wasn't Sookie anymore. I can't and I don't want to be the person I was before, and I definitely couldn't enter their world again right now, for so many reasons. Pele had warned me that it would not be possible to consort with vampires because of the draw my blood would have on vampires, but Pam seemed to be resisting me just fine. In fact, she didn't seem bothered at all. There was also the small problem that I was wanted for five murders and of course the paramount reason was that Hunter wasn't ready to be exposed. I had done as I'd promised myself and I had found a way to protect him from the unknown danger, but he still wasn't ready to enter the supernatural world and wouldn't be for a while.

I shook my head; I didn't want to speak out loud, fearful that my voice and any residual accent would reveal my true identity. So I very carefully tried to glamour her. I gently worked my way into her mind, allowing my thoughts to flow rather than forcing them. Once I was in, I pressed my thoughts into her mind, '_I am not who you are looking for, leave now,' _I demanded.

Pam jolted as my thoughts entered her mind and her eyes softened as she started to believed me. My glamour hadn't worked, but she knew that Sookie had never possessed the ability to send thoughts, much less the speed and strength she had seen me employ. "Who are you?" she asked carefully, I could sense disappointment coming from her. I said nothing in response to her query.

"Who are you?" she said more firmly, trying to glamour me. When she realized that she could not control me, she assessed my body, noting my youth and lack of scars. She identified the differences between the Sookie she had known 15 years ago and myself, focusing on how my eyes sparkled.

Her fragile conviction as to my identity waned. She leaned in closer to me and sniffed at my scent, her eyes widened and she took a few quick steps back from me, and then I watched as her pupils dilated and her fangs ran out in blood lust. I took two steps back myself and prepared to hold her off if she attacked, but watched with relief as she forced her fangs back, clenched her jaw and gave her head a slight shake as she mastered herself. Her eyes returned to their bright blue and she looked at me with her head tilted to the side slightly, "Did you kill Sookie?" she asked cautiously.

I felt my eyes widen at her words and I shook my head.

"Why did you kill the Weres and vampires in Oakland?"

'_They attacked me; I defended myself. Why are you collecting fae?'_

It was her turn to look surprised. "We're not, Niall Brigant is, we're just helping him," she answered cryptically. I wasn't sure that I believed her, the idea of the prince of the fairies asking vampires to help him round up other fairies was too far-fetched to be true. "So, what are you? You're not like any fae I've ever smelled."

I watched her mentally replay the events that brought her to Hana and I kicked myself for having left Hunter's blood on the carpet and my number in Trent's phone. I had drawn a straight line for someone who was interested and observant to follow. She was cataloging all the information she had about me, trying to figure out who and what I was.

I flinched a little when she thought of the carnage I had left in the apartment and I realized that this image was part of the reason she was so wary of me. Well, that made two of us. I checked myself again to make sure my powers were well under my control. Although I no longer felt that my powers would burst forth without my consent, I still focused extra effort on containing them. I would allow no mistakes here.

We stared at one another for a while longer, I had no clue how I was going to get her to leave. Finally, stress and fatigue got the best of me and I unconsciously raised my hands to my head, pulled the front of my hair into a ponytail and squeezed it tight in an old habit I had been unable to break. The traction and small amount of pain the action provided my scalp always made me feel more alert and capable.

Pam's eyes narrowed and I felt a tiny seed of hope spring up in her just before I was overwhelmed by very clear emotions of regret and sorrow and these emotions even passed over her usually impassive face as she apparently accepted that I was not and could not be Sookie. Her memories then staggered me as they ran clearly through her mind. Horrible pain was radiating through Pam's chest convincing her momentarily that Eric had been killed…Eric in a horribly familiar swamp, blood tears drying on his face, trees ripped from the ground…Sam leaning on his car, grief seeping from his body…Eric and Niall fighting violently…Eric and all of my loved ones at a funeral, his face stricken, lost…Jason crying quietly in Michelle's arms…Eric beheading an injured Bill…A horribly disfigured Victor laid out on a concrete platform, Pam and Miriam doing unspeakable things to him…A cold sucking sensation in Pam's stomach warning her that Eric was thinking of meeting the sun.

What? What the hell?

I was bowled over with watching the after effects of my leaving Bon Temps. I had never looked back, not once to see what had happened to anyone. At the time, I was in too much pain to invite more and later I was too scared of reigniting the pain and grief to open that wound again. Plus I hadn't trusted that I wouldn't go running back if I heard something about someone I loved that upset me. I'd never wanted to know that my fears of what might have happened were actually true. Now I was seeing the events play out like my own personal horror movie in my mind and it tore a fresh gaping hole in my chest.

Eric and Niall fought? Is that the real reason why Eric was attacking fairies? And he had killed Bill? My stomach heaved at the sight of his head sailing across the graveyard where our ancestors were buried and my heart ached at the thought of my friend and champion being finally dead. I hadn't actually thought of Bill much in the past fifteen years, but the knowledge that Eric had killed him made me feel sick.

I hated seeing Sam and Jason grieving, although I had known that it would be unavoidable, but Eric contemplating meeting the sun? What was he thinking? How could he possibly consider hurting himself? Had breaking the bond weakened him that much? He wasn't supposed to be hurt, he was strong and although he said he wanted to find a way out of the marriage contract, I knew he didn't have much hope, so he must have been preparing himself to leave me and marry Oklahoma. He didn't do things without a plan.

My eyes or my pounding heart must have given me away somehow, even though I hadn't allowed a muscle to twitch as I watched Pam's memories. Whatever she saw was all she needed, she had been reading human expressions for 200 years.

Anger and recognition burned in her eyes, "It is you! I knew it!" she growled in disgust and anger as she lunged at me with clawed fingers reaching for my neck. Shit! I dodged her attack, fear coursing through me, not because I was afraid of her catching me, but because I was afraid of repeating my deadly actions from two nights ago. I needed to be strong, firm and powerful, but maintain absolute control. Most of all, I had to keep calm and focused. If I allowed my emotions to rule, we would both lose horribly.

I didn't want to hurt her, but I would not return to the helpless role I had played so many years ago. So I locked down my emotions and readied myself as I did daily in training. I could almost feel Hunter ready to fight alongside me just out of sight, although I knew I was alone in this moment, thank goodness.

She struck again, throwing caution to the wind in her anger and I was able to evade her three more times before her aim struck true and she grasped my throat in one small but unrelenting hand and my hair in her other hand. I punched out at her with my fists and elbows and slammed my body against hers, but she would not let me go. She pulled me down until we were both kneeling on the rocks so I had less ability to fight against her grasp. I glanced at her and was surprised to see that her fangs were retracted and her face appeared more worried than anything else.

I heard her begin to call out to Eric as child and maker can do and I felt my power flow within me as my fear increased. I cried out an unintelligible warning as I struggled to tamp it down, squeezing my hands into tight, painful fists and trembling with my effort. Once I had gained enough control, I ever so carefully and slowly drilled thoughts of suppression into her mind, attempting to force her into halting her call and making her forget our encounter.

Our minds locked together as firmly as our bodies, with her hands squeezing my flesh and I, her mind, but I could only halt her call, I couldn't make any impact on her memories.

I thought about all the other powers I had at my disposal, attempting to find something that would help me out of this situation. I remembered the moment when I felt myself begin to shift forms in the presence of Bingwen, the were-gibbon. If I ever needed to be able to change forms and literally fly out her here, this was it. I focused on my bones and my form and tried to shift my whole body for the first time ever, picturing a falcon I often watched fly above our home. But as I tried, I felt the control I had over restraining my more dangerous powers weaken and I stopped the process immediately. I could not lose control. Pam had seen the shimmer of my body as it began to morph and her eyes widened in shock.

I continued to carefully force my will on her, halting her call, until her relentless grasp began to affect my ability to think clearly and I weakened. As I released her mind, she decreased the force of her grasp on my throat. I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut in frustration and despair. My fight was lost; I was still too weak to survive an engagement with a vampire without the use of my most hated and feared powers.

If I couldn't win against vampires, it was imperative that I protect Hunter's identity and existence to ensure that he was not brought into this supernatural world before he was ready. It was all I could do for him now. I was already threatening him because I couldn't bring myself to kill an old friend, as I knew I should. This whole nightmare might go away if I could just bring myself to end her, but I couldn't and I wouldn't.

I let out a small sob, devastated that I had failed my son in two ways. I was desperate now that she knew who I really was, so I looked at her with the familiarity of our past friendship in my eyes, "Please, Pam please don't call him," I begged.

She looked at me in confusion and amazement. She couldn't believe how much I had changed, but she was sure about who I was and she very much wanted to ensure both my safety and Eric's. A tiny spark of hope lit in my chest as I realized that she wanted to help me, maybe she would understand why she needed to keep my identity a secret from Eric.

Suddenly her head snapped up and her worried gaze was drawn to a point in the starry sky and she whispered, "It's too late."

I gasped.

"Get back Pam!" a beautiful but stressed voice demanded from above. Pam released me fully as she stood up and stepped back from me, shaking her head slowly. My weakened body collapsed forward. I wrapped my arms around my middle and rocked slowly, gasping with the pain that I knew this reunion would bring. I kept my eyes closed, the coward that I am. I did not want to see this happen, to take responsibility for causing him pain without being able to explain why I had done so, knowing that I would have to hurt him once more as I ran again. There was no way I could stay with him, not yet. This exposure alone would put both Hunter and I at incredible risk. But my heart broke into sharp pieces at the thought of seeing him and then having to leave him again. We could not be together; it was impossible.

It's not that I thought he would ever hurt me himself, but he was my gateway drug. Being with him, sharing my secrets with him would only lead to my re-introduction to more dangerous parts of the supernatural world and clearly I was not much more prepared than Hunter.

I didn't read his mind, refusing to allow that intimacy for fear that it would completely destroy me, but I sensed him getting closer. He landed, placing himself in front of Pam in a protective stance. I felt my love for him make it's way through the tension as he took steps to protect his child, but I fought it back ruthlessly. Even with my eyes closed, I was intensely aware of him. I'd forgotten what an incredibly overwhelming presence he had. It filled the night, wrapping itself around me and creeping into my heart and mind like a greedy mist, threatening to swallow me up. God, I would give almost anything to not be here right now. It had been fifteen years and still I loved him, but now I would have to start over and the pain of losing him again would be the worst kind of torture.

I sensed an exchange occur between the two of them, but didn't try to hear what Pam was telling him; I already knew.

I was angry with myself for my weakness and cowardice, I was a strong independent woman and here I was trembling on my knees, afraid of facing the consequences of my actions. The different parts of me collided. Who was I? A protective mother? A lover? A scared human telepath on the run for her life? All of my identities rolled around in my mind, confusing me farther. The mother in me, and the logic of my brain called my defensive training and my powers into action. The lover in me craved to embrace him and to run from him at the same time, but both actions would require strength I didn't have right now. I refused to be the scared telepath anymore so I placed my hands on the rocks and focused on my breath, and on the ebb and flow of the calming exchange of energy. I pulled gently from the earth, making sure not to take too much so that I would be sure to remain in control. Slowly, I felt my strength return, but my courage still wavered.

He stood watching me in absolute silence as I recharged myself before slowly lowering himself to the ground inches away from me. I heard the clank of a metal weapon being placed on the rocks. Fear and anxiety of the outcome of this meeting increased my heartbeat and quickened my breaths. The tension caused my powers to roil within me, once again eager to be called to action. I wrapped my arms tightly around my trunk and clenched my hands as I clamped my powers down again; I could not and would not destroy Eric or Pam.

He didn't speak, but I felt a gentle hand placed beneath my chin. I squeezed my eyes even tighter at the incredible sensation of his cool hand on my skin again. His touch caused me joy, hope and pain. I knew that I should run away from him as fast as I could; but I just couldn't. I loved him too much. He slowly tilted my head up and feather soft touches swept the hair away from my face. Every touch was a balm to my heart and as his fingers moved across my skin, he was brushing aside years of loneliness and grief.

He waited, but I still couldn't bring myself to look at him. He continued to stroke my face lightly for a few moments and the intimacy of the gesture was killing me. If I could have disappeared, popped away from here, I would have in an instant. As more tears escaped, I heard him breathe his all too familiar words, "Look at me."

My heart ached with pain at the sound of his voice but I gathered my remaining courage and opened my eyes to see his beautiful face inches away from mine. Immediately, I felt the wound in my chest heal and my heart finally started to beat fully again, but I knew with absolute certainty that Hunter and my lives were going to be torn apart. I couldn't allow that no matter how much I wanted to be in Eric's arms forever. I couldn't be that weak, I owed more to Hunter than my weakness and selfishness.

Eric stared at me. He was more beautiful than I had remembered. The starlight shone on his pale skin and hair, which he had pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. Tendrils that had escaped during his flight cascaded along his jaw and onto his shoulders. His face was soft with shock but his eyes were tensed with confusion and disbelief, a furrow had formed between his eyebrows.

"Sookie?" he whispered hardly moving his lips. I had to force myself to try; I shook my head frantically, but didn't speak.

He released my face and gently trailed a cool hand up my unblemished thigh and then unwrapped my left arm from my torso and raised it enough to look at the underside of my upper arm where nasty scars had been from my time with Naeve and Lochlan. I knew he would only see smooth skin there and anywhere else he looked. He ran his cool fingertips along the skin where the scars had been and then he lowered my arm and sat looking at my hand in his for a long while. My skin tingled where his fingers had touched, my dreams had paled in comparison to the reality of having him here with me and I shivered as the sensations ran through my body.

After a few minutes, he gently placed a hand on either side of my face and stared at me for a moment before closing his eyes, leaning in so his nose almost touched my neck and with a deep breath, he took in my scent for the first time. My body reacted to him like it did for no other, heat blossomed in my heart and then warm tendrils of desire reached out to wind around my stomach and lower. His soft hair tickled my face, and my lips begged to kiss his ear and I desperately wanted to wrap my arms around him and hold him tight so that I would never lose him again. I began to tremble slightly; I was such a fool and so very weak…but I was ready and eager for our reunion.

I took a breath, treasuring his scent and my lips moved to form his name in a moan of surrender when his hands suddenly jerked on my face, tightening his grasp on me and I heard him growl quietly. He pulled back to look at me again, his expression was incredulous and quickly became absolutely furious. I tried to pull away, but he held me firmly, his eyes burning holes into mine with his anger. I had known he would be upset with me for the way I had left him, but this reaction took me off guard and my heart began to pound in my chest.

He shook me once, "You. It's you," he growled just as Pam had done. I looked away in shame, but he shook me again, hurting me this time and growled even louder. I was really afraid now, and I looked deep into his eyes, trying to figure out why was he reacting so badly. Ice filled my chest when I saw that his face had gone cold and blank, the expression that had always terrified me when he was angry. He would be giving me no clues as to what had happened that had upset him so much.

He moved his right hand off my face to my neck so quickly that I didn't feel the transition. By the time I realized that he was putting pressure on the sides of my neck, I was already feeling light headed. I knew what he was doing, I had learned about this in my training. He was trying to knock me out by cutting off the blood supply to my brain, but why? Why was he hurting me? I pushed and scratched at him, ineffectively trying to get him to release me, but my body was too weak to put up any kind of a fight.

In the distance, and above the roaring in my ears as my brain fought for oxygen, I heard Pam yell, "Eric, No!"

Another emotional mind was also cracking through my weakened defenses and I heard Hunter raging violently in the safe room trying to get out to help me as he sensed my peril.

I looked up in disbelief at the man I loved as my depleted body began to shut down. I tried once more to pull his hand away and to jerk out of his unbreakable hold, but we were already rising into the sky when my world went dark.

-TBC


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: I needed music to help me write this chapter and the best one I found was Brotsjor by Olafur Arnalds. If you want to, read until you get to the first o-o-o-o and then put this song on repeat. It perfectly depicts how I wanted to present Eric in this chapter.

Chapter 26  
>Pain (Part 1) - SPOV<p>

When I awoke, I was inside, lying on a cold, hard floor and I was completely confused. What the hell had just happened? A terrible ball of unease was gnawing at my stomach, but I didn't know what had caused it. I tried to piece together the details of what had occurred, but was distracted when I moved to sit up and felt a light tug on my right wrist. I looked down and saw that a terry cloth robe belt had been tied tightly around my wrist. The other end of the belt was attached to a pipe I could see inside a hole that had been crudely made in the floor about three feet to my right. The length of the belt allowed me to move my arm freely, but restricted the movement of my body to a small space. I felt a fist close around my heart. This was definitely not a good sign.

I sat up quickly, working at the unyielding knot on my wrist with my left hand and my teeth, my heart pounding with anxiety as I quickly assessed my situation. The space I was in was immediately familiar and thus somewhat comforting. I was in a cottage at the Hana Hotel; similar to the one I had stayed in when I first moved here. The large white bed was to my left and the light tight lanai door on my right was closed so I could just barely hear the ocean and the wind outside. All of the windows that lined the walls to my back were blocked and the lights were on throughout the enclosed space. The heavy wooden bed and other furniture had been pushed to the left side of the room closer to the front door, leaving a large space on the dark wood floor that I was occupying.

My attention was immediately captured when Eric walked into the room, drying his hands on a fluffy light green towel. The shock and pleasure of seeing him was tempered by a whisper soft warning that was going off in the back of my mind. I took a moment to figure out how the warning was related to Eric when he turned to me with a look of such powerful rage that I flinched back, and my memories came flashing back, reminding me of the events that had occurred in my backyard.

"Who are you?" he demanded angrily but slowly so each word was its own question. I was confused; I thought he knew…I thought Pam had told him. If he didn't know who I was, then why was he so angry? Was it because my scent had changed? Could he actually think I was someone else, even though Pam knew the truth, and if so could this be the escape route I'd been hoping for? If I could make him think I was someone else, would he leave us alone? I grasped onto this possibility with all my hope, ignoring the terrifying fact that I was restrained.

My pause infuriated Eric even more. He lunged at me and grabbed my face roughly. "Don't fuck with me!" he hissed. I cried out in shock and pain. "I've been looking for you for fifteen years and I would recognize your scent anywhere. I know that you are the one who murdered my bonded. She had your blood on her hand, scrios," he accused, using the last word as a slur.

I gasped, 'scrios'? That word was familiar…I searched frantically through my memory to place the word and I could feel myself pale as I remembered where I'd read it. I had seen it in an entry of the shifter's library about fairies. The scrios was described as being the fae's greatest foe. Their enmity was so terrible that the fae would kill the scrios on sight and vice versa. But why was he calling me a scrios? I wasn't an enemy of the fae, it wasn't possible, I was part fairy; how could I be my own greatest enemy? Even my life couldn't be that messed up. And how could he have found some blood on my hand anyway when there was no body left behind? This was all ridiculous; he didn't know what he was talking about. I pulled at my bindings, I needed to get out of here...go somewhere sane where things made sense.

As if he had read my mind, he hissed again, "Your expressions confirm that you know what happened; there was no body, but I smelled your blood on her handprint in the _dirt_ where you murdered her."

Again I was shocked by his words. Her handprint…my handprint…I had a very clear memory of that horrible night from so long ago. I had scratched my face while I was desperately trying to pull the unrelenting hand from my mouth and nose and had drawn my own blood in three shallow cuts just over my cheekbone. I remember seeing them in the car mirror. But there had to have been so much of my blood at the scene, could my essential chemistry have changed so noticeably in the short time between when I had my blood drawn at the bank and when I scratched my face, that he could detect just a drop or two of it? Only about 40 hours had passed, such a short time really. Could I have changed that much in under two days?

I thought of all the changes I had made in my life, all the choices that would alter my future and I knew that it was entirely probable, not just possible that my blood had changed in that time too. I also remembered that my face had healed before I got to the airport, and my shields had strengthened by the time I was on the flight from California to Hawaii, proving that my change had indeed been significant a long time before I realized anything was really different. I had assumed at the time that my speedy healing was a benefit of the vampire blood I had in my system, but now I knew that it must have been my own powers healing me.

Suddenly it all made sense. Eric didn't believe Pam, he thought that I was the one who had taken part in the death of his bonded. Well that explained his anger, but what should I do about it?

"Niall Brigant warned me that the scrios had shape shifting talents…or maybe you actually are a relative of Sookie's, you look very much like her. It doesn't matter either way, although you certainly had Pam fooled and you almost had me, but you forgot to hide your scent." He took a deep breath, "It calls to me."

He sat back from me, took a white cloth from his pocket and unwrapped a flat stone covered with dried blood on one side. He showed it to me, then brought it to his nose to smell it before he wet the tip his pinkie and rubbed it into the blood and then licked his finger clean, closing his eyes tightly as he sampled the blood and then swallowed. "It tastes exactly the same as it did 15 years ago," he said, his voice rough with restrained emotion.

He opened his eyes again, leaned in toward my face; fangs fully extended now and despite my attempts to pull away, swiped a sharp fang across my cheekbone, causing a small scratch. I gasped as I felt his tongue lick along the wound and was shocked when he turned and spat the blood on the floor beside us. He withdrew a few inches, clenched his jaw and I saw a slight tremor run through him as he fought to restrain himself from taking more of my blood. Once he had control over himself again, he let me go, moved over toward the bed and ripped a small piece of cotton fabric from the bed sheet. He used the cloth to roughly wipe my healing cheek and then mopped up the blood he had spat on the floor. He took the cloth into the bathroom and I heard him flush the toilet.

When he returned, he was glaring at me with disgust, "I want nothing more of you within me. There is my proof," he growled, pointing to the stone and then my cheek. "The blood on this stone that was not from my Sookie is you. It is an exact match. You killed my bonded. Do not even try to deny it."

I stared at him in confusion, I needed to develop a plan, to figure out what I should do, but all of this new information was overwhelming me and I couldn't think clearly. He bared his fangs and backhanded me across the cheek so hard that I lost clarity for a while. When I regained my focus, I felt my face slowly healing. He had broken my cheekbone without splitting my skin. My eye was blurry and the left side of my face was swollen and throbbing with pain.

Eric towered over me, grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me partly upright so that I looked into his dark blue eyes. I tried to pull away from him, pushing at his chest and stomach with my feet and I heard the seams of my shirt giving, but he held me tight and moved his other hand to hold my hair so that I was contained and he had my full attention.

He lowered his face so it was inches from mine, "You will tell me why you killed my bonded and what you told her that drew her to that swamp." His gaze never faltered as he continued, "You will tell me who helped you plan and carry out her murder and where you put her body. You will tell me how to get into the safe room on your property and exactly who is locked inside and what they mean to you."

My God, he knew about the safe room. Pam. She must have told him, she had seen me close and lock the door. My heart began to pound ever faster than it had been. Hunter and the others!

Adrenaline and power coursed through my body as I prepared to protect my son and my family; I clenched my hands tightly, forcing control upon myself. That was not the answer to this problem, I would find another solution; I had to, there was no other option for me. No matter how different Eric was with me now than he had been in the past, I still would not destroy him.

He leaned even closer to me, but his voice was almost casual, which made it even scarier when combined with his expressionless face and ice-cold eyes. "Know this, I will be killing you and whoever else is hiding in that chamber. The question you need to ask yourself is how much you want to suffer before you die."

I knew that he could be vicious, I'm not a complete fool, and I had been on the wrong end of his anger one other time when he was trying to find out what Bill had been doing for the Queen. But absolutely nothing could have prepared me for facing his intense rage and hatred, which were both focused directly on me. The feelings of loss and grief at having him turn on me in this way added to my emotional tumult.

I looked slightly off to the side while he gave me a few moments to think. How much I wanted to suffer before I died…no that wasn't the question I needed to ask myself. What I needed to figure out was what I could and couldn't accept in my life.

I simplified the matter, breaking down the relevant essential truths of my life that would sustain and guide me as I answered this question.

First. If I allowed Eric to know my true identity, there would be no way to stop him from learning about Hunter, and even if he accepted us back in his life, forgiving me, he would always try to protect us. Yet I had trusted him many times before and he had failed me when it most mattered, by not taking the threat seriously enough and by not being honest with me. There was only one person I would trust to protect Hunter and that was myself. I did not and I would not trust anyone else with his secrets and well being.

Even if I only told Eric about my secrets, most of which he knew already, and kept Hunter's identity hidden, I had no doubt that simply having Eric's presence in our lives would bring us to the attention of the fae, more vampires and the rest of the supes. Associating with the supernatural community would be as deadly as Eric's threat was to us especially if what Eric told me about being part scrios was true; and I was slowly beginning to think he might be right. It made sense of the unexplained yet intense hate Pele's son had for me the minute he realized I was part fae, and why he was determined to kill me right away.

No. It didn't matter how much I wanted to, I could not accept the risk that having Eric in my life would bring to Hunter.

Second, I knew exactly what Eric wanted from me, and what he would do to get that information. I could end this right here and now with the slightest effort or with the lack of effort every second required to keep my powers in check. But I loved Eric, had loved him since he stayed by my side at Club Dead. I hadn't known it at the time, but the love had been growing even then.

I loved him; and so I didn't care why he was collecting fairies, why he hadn't warned me about the danger I was in when he was forced into his marriage with Oklahoma, or that he had hurt me…would hurt me again if I allowed it. He didn't know who I really was and it was my choice to keep that knowledge from him. My choice.

It was my right to choose the way I reacted to the events unfolding in my life and I would not accept destroying him to have an easy escape from this situation.

Eric was starting to get impatient with me when Pam entered the room. She looked awful, I had never seen her cowed before, but she was now. Clearly, she and Eric had had some kind of altercation while I was out of it. I just hoped he hadn't hurt her. She stared at me and I listened to her, she was begging me to tell Eric who I was. She couldn't understand why I wouldn't tell him, why I would allow him to hurt me. She knew he would continue to hurt me until he was satisfied or I was dead. I had never heard Pam beg before, and it terrified me.

"Pam," Eric demanded, attempting to draw her attention away from me. She ignored him, continuing to stare me down, and trying to force me to tell him who I really was. I pretended that I couldn't hear her and turned my gaze away from her and out the door. I had made my choice.

I felt the slight warm breeze wafting in through the open door and I could just see a few stars peeking through the trees. I reached out and pulled on the energies that nature offered me. I breathed them in and felt my face heal faster and my strength increase. I offered up a prayer of thanks and a request for the continued strength and courage I needed to protect both Hunter and Eric. A gust of air blew into the room and I knew at that moment that I was not alone.

Eric snapped out, "Shut the door Pam, now." He had realized what I was doing and was severing my connection to my source of comfort and strength.

"Eric," Pam began after she closed the door, but he cut her off.

"No. Pam. No more. Her blood is an exact match to the blood on the stone. She is the one I have been looking for. I know what she is and what she did. There will be no more debate." The last sentence was an order. "Tell me what you found at the house."

Pam looked at me again and I saw pictures of Hunter and I flash through her mind. No! She knew our names, what Hunter looks like and that he was in the basement.

_'Please, please Pam,' _I begged silently, keeping my face blank,_ 'tell him anything you want about me but leave Hunter out of this, he's not involved and can't protect himself. Please!'_

"Now, Pam," Eric demanded, and when she hesitated some more, he focused his gaze firmly on her and she crumpled to the ground, clutching her chest and head in pain. I was about to beg him to stop when he released her from whatever he was doing to her. "I will tolerate no more of your evasions or arguments Pam, tell me what you found. Now."

Pam stood again and looked directly at him as she said, "There are photos of a woman," and she swept a hand in my direction, "and more of a child. The child has dark hair and eyes. Pictures show the child aging, but in all of the photos, the woman appears as she is now. At this point, it looks as though the child is in his early twenties."

She looked down at the floor for a moment before continuing, "Her name is," my heart seized and I began to tremble, "Jeanne A. Holden and his is Jonathan H. Landry. Jeanne Holden owns the apartment in Oakland where the relocation team was killed. I found both her scent and the scent of a human with fairy heritage and genetic ties to the Stackhouse family at the apartment, on the jet I flew in and at this house. As you know, there is an underground safe room on the east side of the property and I detect the scent of this human/fairy hybrid and five other humans. The door is silver and is locked from within.

"On the west side of the property there is a small building, which is used for combat training. Inside this building are weapons wielded of silver, wood and iron. All of the doorknobs to the house are crafted of silver and iron and I can feel silver buried in the ground around the property."

As she was speaking about the silver, Eric slowly turned to look at me, his face blank but his eyes burned with intensity. Eric's angry eyes didn't leave me; he just flicked a hand at her and said briskly, "Leave."

Pam lowered herself to one knee with her neck bent forward and said solemnly, "Yes, Master."

I could only remember one other time that I had seen Pam kneel before Eric and use the term 'Master' when referring to him. It was now, as it was then, a disturbing sight.

She stood and walked to the door. As she closed it behind her, I caught a look of anger mixed with apology and pity in her eyes. She was right to be angry with me, they both were, but this was my choice.

Eric squeezed my face again to return my attention to him.

"Have you made your decision?" he asked, his voice and face devoid of all emotion.

My answers were clear. I couldn't accept compromising either of these men, the only men I had ever truly loved with the exception of my brother and father. Despite the certainty I had in my decision, my heart still sank; fear and grief twisted around one another like angry snakes as I fully realized what I had to do…what my decision actually meant for my immediate future.

I would fight with everything I had with the exception of one power and perhaps I could win, but I knew the odds would be against me. I took a deep breath, delivering oxygen to each of my muscles, while at the same time, tamping down on my explosive powers; preparing for the fight of my life, and in so doing, I gave the men I loved the most precious gift I could bear to offer.

I now had my answer to his question. I turned back to him, looking into the eyes that I had loved for the last seventeen years; but with a totally different purpose this time.

A malevolent smile crossed Eric's beautiful face, as he understood my unspoken intent. "I was hoping that would be your answer," he crooned viciously.

o-o-o-o

I always knew that there was a possibility that I would be in this position again with someone hurting me, forcing his will upon me, using me. I just never thought that it would be the man I loved. My heart broke again as he looked at me with cool calculation and pure hatred in his eyes. I had always pitied those who received this stare from him in the past and now I stared back with every ounce of courage I could muster, keeping my thoughts on protecting Hunter and on mastering my self-control.

Just because Pam had bested me once outside didn't mean I couldn't gain a momentary advantage just long enough to get away. I developed a plan using my other available powers, shifting (if I could make it work this time), mind control, speed and strength.

I carefully connected to Eric's mind, making sure not to read his thoughts, nor to telegraph mine. I pictured darkness settling in over his whole mind, blocking off his vision and I forced submission upon him similar to what I had done to Pam, with the hope that I would be able to slow his reactions. At the same time, I reached down with both hands and pulled on my bindings hard enough to snap the belt at the pipe. I jumped up and ran toward the door with the belt flapping behind me.

All of this took less than five seconds and I squeaked in fear as I heard Eric roar behind me. I had been unable to maintain the submission beyond the first few seconds, but thankfully he was still blinded. I made it to the door and was in the process of turning the knob when a cool and heavy body slammed mine into the wall, knocking my breath out of my chest. He couldn't see me, but he could smell and hear me and had made a general attack to the area he knew I was moving through. I defended myself breathlessly by kicking my foot backwards into the front of his knee and hitting him with an elbow to his solar plexus and then across his trachea, and again I had a second to flee while he recovered from the blows.

I had the door partially open when my right arm was grasped from behind and squeezed brutally. I heard the door slam and I screamed as I felt my arm break, causing me to release his mind from the darkness. He spun me around, and pressed my back against the door; unbidden tears streamed down my face from the pain in my forearm. However, my pain was quickly forgotten when I saw his burning eyes and extended fangs with lines of saliva dripping from the tips. I had never seen him so angry.

I expected him to rip into my throat at any moment, so I struck him again with blindness and kicked his balls and then his knee again, this time hitting it from the side with the bottom of my foot as hard as I could and then I rammed my knee up into his nose at the same time that he bent forward from the blow to his balls and his knee.

I focused on carefully shifting my form and changed just my good arm into a bear claw and slammed it down on the back of his neck, slicing his skin and knocking him to the ground and then I shifted back to my own form as I ran for the lanai glass doors. I knew I wouldn't have time to open them so I picked up a heavy metal sculpture to throw at the glass when I felt a cold hand wrap around my neck, pressing on my arteries. I screamed in rage, attempting to shift again as I kicked and elbowed him as hard as I could, but was unable to do more than shimmer briefly as I weakened and faded away again, the last thing I heard was Eric's continuous growling behind me.

o-o

The next time I awoke, I was immediately aware of the gravity of my situation. I was relieved to feel that my broken arm had healed, but dismayed to find my wrists and ankles bound by electrical wires he must have ripped from the lamps or the TV. I sat up and tried to free myself, but was unable to budge the wire at all. Eric sat beside me in a chair, looking much more ruffled than he had before. He had healed of course, but his shirt was stained with blood from his nose and from the back of his neck.

He glared at me, as though he were dissecting me, trying to figure out what I was. I could see his mind working furiously, so I carefully dropped my shields and entered his twisting thoughts. His mind was still like a snake pit of writhing and entwining ideas, ever changing, assessing, and adapting. His dynamic mind was the reason he was such a great strategist.

Eric bared his fangs and leaned toward me, "I can feel you in my mind," he hissed coldly. I was shocked; Pam hadn't felt me, why could he? I tried to pull back, to get out of his mind, but as I did his face broke into a cruel grimace of effort and his fangs ran out further and I was suddenly knocked onto my back by a flurry of images. He was forcing his memories upon me. This was nothing like when Pam had shared her memories of the aftermath of my leaving Bon Temps. This was not a means of communication, but a deliberate attack.

I felt his concentration and his glee as he was brutally torturing a thin woman with dark brown hair. After some effort, I recognized her as a brutalized and starved version of Sandra Pelt. Even though I had hated her and would certainly not be upset to know she was dead, I was sickened by what he was capable of, by his lack of compassion and by the joy he received from her suffering.

Oh my God, the things he did to her…I again tried to throw up my shields but he pushed against them. "Oh, no you don't," he said as he shook his head with a slight smile. I couldn't fathom how he was doing this; I never thought my telepathy could be used against me in this way.

My head was pounding from the onslaught, and I thought I might actually vomit from the visions of what he was doing and from the pain his intrusion was causing. I tried to relax back and focus on my breathing. I closed my eyes and his vicious thoughts flickered. He recalled dumping Sandra's body in the swamp and then his thoughts became gentler as he searched through other swamps for his lover's body. For a brief moment, he was devastated, lost and wounded. I felt my love for him try to break free, but pushed it back again before I was driven to try to comfort him.

He shook off his momentary lapse of focus, and hatred once again ruled his thoughts and emotions. He bore his eyes into mine and I could almost feel them ripping treasured memories and emotions out of my heart and wounding my soul. I wrenched my gaze free from his, I would not allow him to defile the beauty that had existed between us, as he could when he looked directly into my eyes with such hate. Even when he aligned our eyes and his gaze pulled me to him like a magnet, I was able to blur my vision enough so that we did not connect. I had to avoid allowing him to make such a personal connection. My avoidance infuriated him but I maintained my self-control. After restraining my more dangerous powers while I was fighting and in pain, this was easy. I was grateful for that since I apparently could not disconnect my mind from his twisted thoughts, or effectively defend my body; this was the only form of self-preservation I could provide myself.

He smiled at me with eyes so blank and cold that my heart began to pound and I felt sweat running down my chest as he lightly ran his cool fingers along my throat. He picked up the green hand towel he had used earlier and covered his hand with it before grasping my pendant and ripping it and the silver chain from my neck. He threw the necklace and the cloth into a corner of the room. I felt so bare without it, I hadn't removed it once in 15 years, and somehow I felt less without it.

Eric leaned in toward me so we were inches apart. "I know that you murdered my bonded," he growled. He tilted his head slightly to the side and ran his tongue across his fangs as his eyes narrowed. I shuddered at the thought of what he could do with those fangs. "You smell very much like her…I can smell that you are linked through your fae heritage, but your scent is overpowered the another, more magical scent of the scrios. I can smell the magic in you and I can only assume that it is your youth that stops you from using what should be more significant powers. I would also assume that this heritage is how you read and control vampire minds. The fairy did not warn me about that ability," he mused hatefully, "but I find myself enjoying it more than I would have expected."

The touch of his fingers became firmer, just on the edge of painful as he continued, his voice rougher now, "I know that there were two individuals involved that night, one that my bonded feared and the other, she trusted. I felt it through the blood bond I had with my Sookie and saw it in the reconstruction. She came to someone, expecting something terrible, but not her own death. She was betrayed by someone, and I believe that someone was you." As he spoke the last sentence, his fingers settled circling my neck and my heart sank, fear settling in like an ice-cold hand squeezing my heart rather than my neck. "Do you remember how she was killed?" He squeezed my throat and growled at me menacingly, the emotions in his brilliant blue eyes conflicting with is voice. It was because I knew him so well, that I could see his pain through his anger and I grieved for both of us. "I can remind you again and again…if that is the pathway you wish to continue to follow." And he did, taking me over the edge into unconsciousness before waking me roughly.

I woke knowing that I had been hurt, and that my body had healed itself again, but this time, I had lingering pain in my neck, lungs, head and face. He was sitting cross-legged at my chest level, drinking a true blood. "You heal quickly for a mortal, but you will weaken, you all do," he taunted. "Have you anything to tell me?" He waited a moment as I clenched my teeth and pulled at my bindings again, looking simultaneously for a way to endure and to escape. His thoughts turned even darker as he realized that I had made my decision.

He shared with me what he was going to do to me and the terror of this knowledge ran through my body like lightning. I began gasping for breath even before his hand returned to my throat to squeeze again. Old memories from after our fight with Mickey came flashing back to me, _"My first move would have been to damage your mouth or neck so you couldn't rescind my entrance."_ That was one of the things Eric was doing, damaging my neck so I could not scream and alert anyone passing by the cottage. He was also weakening me so I couldn't use my powers to defend or heal myself.

My body began to fight for itself and I felt the power building up in my chest. I could feel my nails cutting into my palms as I fought harder against myself than I did against Eric. Luckily, my conflicted fight for control and breath was shorter this time as I felt myself dragged into darkness and immediately being slapped awake again; weaker still.

Eric was staring down at me with a dark expression; he had both hands planted on either side of my face and I was no longer restrained. I resisted meeting his eyes again, but it was harder this time. He was wearing a different shirt and his hair was damp, but the meaning of the changes was lost on me. I was trembling; my head was pounding and my throat and face were sore and swollen. My lungs burned and my mouth was completely dry from gasping for breath.

Eric's jaw was tight; his fangs retracted, and his lips were pulled down in a slight frown. "I don't like hurting you," he said, and I believed him. His thoughts were twisted with the pain of hurting someone with his lover's face. He was torn but not conflicted. No he was totally intent on his task. "I also am no longer sure that you planned for her to die, you don't seem to have the nature that is necessary for premeditated murder. He picked up a lock of my hair and ran it through his fingers and was quiet in thought for a minute. "All I need from you," he reminded me, "is for you to tell me why you killed my bonded, how you lured her to the swamp and who is in the chamber on your property."

He twisted the lock of my hair around his finger, as he'd done so many times before. I was devastated as his thoughts flickered to memories of us together in bed, and I almost expected him to smile gently at the intimate gesture, but his face was once again ferocious as he growled, "Or we begin again."

My heart shattered again at the loss of the perceived intimacy and I felt a tear slide down my cheek as I closed my eyes and my hands in refusal to both of us.

I couldn't blame him, hate him or even be angry with him for what he was doing to me. The really crazy part of this whole chain of events was that this is what I would have expected him to do if I had really been murdered. He was doing these things to someone he thought had hurt _me_ so I didn't feel betrayed by him as I would have if he knew what he was truly doing. The mixture of fear, pain and desperation with love, gratitude and understanding made a thin protective cocoon that encased me and protected the deepest core of my identity and my heart. Eric had loved me and I still loved him, we were just in an impossible situation.

I was torn from my reverie as an angry growl rang through the room and I was flipped onto my stomach into the exact position I had fallen into on that swampy ground fifteen years ago. "Does this help bring back any memories?" he taunted angrily. Oh, yes it did. The horror of my memories towered upon the terror from this night and threatened to incapacitate me.

Bruising knees dug into my back and forced my chest into the floor and a rough hand ripped at my hair, twisting my neck while the other covered my mouth and nose. "Why did you kill her? Why did you defile her after you killed her? Where is she? Where did you put her body? What had she ever done to you?" His voice was different now, more desperate and needy then I had ever heard from him.

I scratched at his hand, once again drawing blood from my own face, but could not fight for long and I lost consciousness more quickly this time. My body was not resisting well, and I knew my reserves for recuperation had reached their limit.

I awoke this time not to Eric's large hands hurting me, but as I was vomiting and gasping for air. I lost some time after I could breathe again, but I'd never be able to guess how much. When I was finally able to open my eyes, I realized that my vision was failing me. I had black areas at the periphery of my sight and there were hazy circles around the lights, which were so bright they hurt my eyes. Eric's head was positioned in front of a light and he looked as though he had a halo on his head. I almost chuckled, but it came out as a sob. I knew these visual disturbances must be symptoms of brain damage from lack of oxygen and I wondered how long it could possibly be until dawn so I would at least have some time to heal and rest. I must have muttered something because Eric laughed darkly, "Day has come and gone already and I am losing my patience with you." How was that possible? I was so weary, how could I have slept all day and still feel so horrible?

My lips were cracked and the cuts reopened every time I grimaced. It was annoying how such a little injury could cause so much discomfort. I was also concerned that my lips were bleeding, it made me feel more vulnerable in a whole new way, but Eric didn't seem to even notice the blood, for which I was grateful. I assessed my general status and realized that my cracked lips were the least of my concerns. I was sure that both of my cheekbones and my right clavicle were broken. My left ankle was either badly sprained or broken and I was sure that I had deep bruises all over my body. Yet the only blood Eric had shed had been accidental and from my cracked lips or when I bit my tongue as he struck me. He was being very careful not to draw my blood.

I realized after a while that Eric was straddling me, his face hovering above mine with his beautiful hair falling across his cheeks as he looked down at me. I wanted nothing more at that moment than to reach up and touch his hair, brush it back from his face and tuck it behind his ear. I imagined this and could almost feel his hair and skin under my fingertips, when I realized that Eric was speaking again. "….curious who it is that you are protecting that is so valuable, you would be willing to suffer though this without breaking. I have to say that I'm impressed." He didn't sound impressed, he sounded cruel and intent on his task.

"Anyway, I think it is time for a new strategy, don't you. I wouldn't want you to get bored and lose focus on the information I'm seeking. Plus, you're no longer healing so it's time for me to have my fun." My stomach clinched again and I gagged a little, 'fun' is what Naeve and Lochlan had called what they had done to me. The corner of his lip turned up into a mockery of a smile, "Yes, I think you understand."

I was so tired; I just wanted this to be over. Please just let this end so I can be in peace, I just want peace.

Eric looked at me with disgust; he appeared to be listening to something. "Begging won't help you," he growled.

I blinked slowly; I hadn't said anything, had I? I didn't even think I could with the way my throat was so swollen that I couldn't even swallow. It was a few moments before I realized that he must be hearing my thoughts and I was furious with myself for losing control over my body and my mind, but they simply weren't able to cooperate anymore and I feared what that would mean for Hunter. I had to protect him, salvage some hope for him anyway I could.

I took the chance_, 'She wouldn't have wanted you to hurt someone who can't help you'_, I thought at him.

Eric's eyes grew slightly larger as he received my thoughts but he recovered quickly. He held my face in his hand, squeezing painfully. "I think you can help me, you just need more motivation."

This time I didn't have the strength to resist looking directly into his eyes when he forced his gaze on me. The intimacy of the memories the sight of those beautiful sapphire eyes invoked was more powerful and painful than his physical torture. He was ripping me apart inside with his most potent weapon. Thankfully, he had no clue that he, himself was the key to uncovering my deepest weaknesses.

He released my face roughly and placed his hands around my midsection and squeezed. I heard my ribs crack before the pain hit. It tore into me with every shallow breath, causing me to wheeze. I couldn't even scream in agony as I wanted, but I sobbed breathlessly and tears streamed down my face. I tried to push him off me, but my closed hands were useless and my arms were weak and heavy.

"You have 24 ribs, I only broke two. Every time I have to ask you a question, I will break two more. When I finish with your ribs, I'll move on to your limbs. This will stop when you want it to. You have the power to stop the pain, all you have to do is answer my questions," he said with a sick smile. "Take some time to think this through, the night is young."

He gazed down at my hands and I could hear him contemplating why I kept them closed, he was curious about what was I hiding. He reached down and picked up my left hand and I sobbed in terror.

"Don't," I gasped, speaking for the first time, although it was more of a croak. He looked at me curiously, but continued to turn my hand over and moved to pry open my fingers. "No, don't. I don't have…I can't…I don't want…please…"

He ignored me and despite my feeble attempt, I could make no effort to restrain my powers as he opened my fingers. I had no ability to resist him. Relief swept over me when cool air hit my palm, but my powers remained under control, or maybe I was simply too weak to produce the necessary energy. I couldn't restrain the small smile of relief and triumph that crept over my lips. He growled as he saw this, misinterpreting it as my claiming victory over him rather than over myself.

He asked me his questions again and when I didn't answer, he slid his hands up a little on my trunk and squeezed again. The pain was unbelievable and I wasn't able to take a full breath or to even try and think anymore. Sometime after the third or fourth cycle like this, I just let go and gratefully faded away.

I sought refuge from my physical and emotional torment in the arms of my lover. My mind slid into the shower at my home in Bon Temps and rode the waves of contentment, peace and physical comfort I experienced there. I reveled in each touch and every connection we made in that shower, enjoying each pain and agony free moment. Hands sliding gently over eager flesh, warm water running down our bodies, a soft towel gently drying me, cool hands exploring, soft lips kissing, enticing and satisfying. Finally I heard his deeply passionate voice demand, "Look at me," and I gazed up into Eric's blue eyes that were brimming with love and need as he slid into and filled me.

Somewhere in the small part of my conscious mind that was still alert, I heard a tormented roar. I shied away from the coming pain by sliding back into my memories.

TBC


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Pain (Part 2) EPOV

A/N: This chapter begins about an hour before Chapter 23 ends.

She would break soon, I could smell it. Her desperation was mounting and I could see emotions that she had tamped down earlier slipping through her control. I assessed the state of my prisoner and smiled. I would have my answers before the end of this second night, I had no doubts about that. I bent down and removed her bindings, they were no longer necessary; she would now be restrained by her own weakness not by my hands or tools.

This had been an exceptionally unique experience for me; I'd never tortured anyone like her before. She was nothing like a human, and she was stronger and faster healing than the two-natured and the fae. The best comparison I could draw was with torturing a vampire, although she was mortal. Typically with vampires, I used silver to weaken them and halt their healing, but this scrios was not sensitive to either of those metals as evidenced by the necklace she wore. So I had set out to find another way to weaken her without allowing her blood to spill.

Each time I stole her consciousness, I noted that she took slightly longer to wake and I knew that I had found a suitable strategy for weakening her. Niall had told me that Scrios were very resilient to injury when at full strength, but when injured enough, he or she could be killed like any mortal. So I determined that I would continuously damage her brain and her body by robbing it of oxygen until she was too weak to heal or resist me. My strategy had worked perfectly, and now she was a trembling pile on the floor and I hadn't even begun to torture her yet.

The one small problem with my strategy was that I had a lot of down time while she was unconscious despite my forceful attempts to wake her, especially as she weakened. She looked more like my Sookie when she was unconscious and this corporeal reminder of my lost lover brought my memories crashing back to me and threatened to weaken my resolve. My child's words harassed me and would give me no peace, but I knew without a doubt that Pam was wrong.

There was no way this woman was my Sookie, although something she had done when they were alone together had convinced Pam that this truly was her lost friend. I knew better. This woman may have a face that resembled Sookie's and a similar fae heritage, but the magical scent I found in the swamp on the night Sookie was murdered was unique and very strong in her. This woman was also younger, slightly taller, and more supernaturally beautiful than my bonded. Her eyes sparkled unnaturally and I could feel the power of her blood pulsing in her veins. Her blood called to me and tempted me in a way that I had not felt since I was young, and still I found her repulsive because I knew what she had done to my lover.

My Sookie was naturally beautiful and she had defining features such as the scars she had accrued over her many journeys that detailed her incredible courage and devotion to her loved ones. I had hated, yet treasured each and every scar on her body and could tell the tale behind each mark in the way that a bard would commemorate a knight's valiant life.

This blandly perfected and supernatural woman was not my Sookie. She was the scrios that Niall and I had been hunting and I couldn't stand the sight of her. I debated contacting Niall just for the fun of telling him that I had her completely at my mercy where he couldn't get his hands on her, but I knew that he would want me to immediately destroy her and I needed my answers first. Niall had warned me time and again that I should contact him if I ever found a scrios and that he would arrive with an army of fae to assist me in battle. Since he was unable to travel to Maui, he reminded me that the scrios needed to be killed at the first opportunity due to their ferocity, but I was not concerned.

That being said, if I hadn't hated everything about her for her part in Sookie's death, I would have been fascinated by this woman. Not only did she have the courage to stand up to me, and accept my wrath, but she had literally beaten me up. Twice. And almost got away. The key word being _almost,_ I thought with a smile. She was stronger, faster and much more resilient than a Were, almost as impressive as a young vampire and she seemed to have some of the abilities of each.

She even demonstrated abilities that made me think of a powerful witch. I was sure that she had somehow been gaining strength and healing from the nature outside when Pam had come into the room, leaving the door open. I had been watching her face heal from the damage I had inflicted. Her healing had been steady, but sped up significantly while she stared outside as though in a trance, and a light glow emanated from within her skin. This was an unusual woman with impressive powers. I wondered why she didn't use more of them to protect herself.

Even though I was aware of her abilities from Pam's account, I had to admit that she caught me off guard with her choice to use her telepathy to mind fuck me as she tried to get away. It had very nearly worked too. Of course, I had really enjoyed the surprise of being able to force my thoughts on her, to put her at the receiving end of her mind games. She had been so shocked to have her skills turned against her, it was gratifying and her reaction to watching me torture that Pelt bitch was beyond delicious.

I especially relished watching her pale as I dug my hand into the Were-bitches wounds and licked her hot blood from my hand. Usually, I enjoyed using drinking from my non-vampire victims as a means of weakening them during torture, but this was a unique situation. I had to be extremely careful not to draw any more blood than necessary, knowing that I did not want that temptation and distraction. I would tolerate none of her within me, no matter how unique and mouthwatering she tasted and smelled. Her part in Sookie's death, whatever it had been, disgusted me.

Experience had taught me that torturing a part human or supernatural being was a delicate dance between applying enough consistent pain and force to break the body and mind without actually causing death. Supes healed faster and were more resilient, but these talents varied widely between breeds and she was an unknown quantity to me.

My instincts told me that she was young in powers as well as in body and would not have much endurance. So I took it slow, testing her resilience as well as her will. From the time I had first witnessed her healing ability, I had been creating light scratches on her cheek, too shallow to draw blood. At first she healed almost as quickly as a vampire, but the healing had slowed with each injury, and the scratch I had made just before dawn was still visible. She was no longer healing. It was clear that she was stronger of will than of mind and body as her control of both of the latter began to crack. I could taste victory.

As the first night waned, I had not broken her yet, so I sent Pam to procure sleeping pills, which I forced upon her while she was unconscious so she would not wake during the day. I bound her securely and hoped that the drugs would also act to confuse and weaken her defenses even more. The sleeping pills worked and as she weakened, her control over her telepathy waned and her thoughts began to slip though her defenses without her awareness. I was intrigued by this singular connection I had with her.

At one point, I saw a vision of two young boys, twelve years old perhaps, throwing a football with a thin man with long black hair. I could not see his face, but something about the dark boy seemed familiar to me. A little while later, I was caught off guard when a memory of resting in the sun on a chaise lounge came through her shields to me. I was truly stunned by the sensation of the sun's rays heating her skin and changing the scent of the warm air around her. Her body was completely relaxed and she was…at home in the sun. She focused visually on the dazzlingly blue sky, which was laced with puffy white clouds and on the blindingly bright sun that was beaming down on her, warming her skin and causing sweat to bead on her forehead and between her breasts. The sensations uncovered long lost memories from when I was a human and I lost track of time until she began to stir again.

It was clear from her thoughts that she was hoping for the respite that dawn would bring and so I used my knowledge of her memories to torment her for the day that she couldn't remember. The look of confusion and fatigue that crossed her face was priceless.

The reversal of her telepathy provided the only real interaction I was getting from her. Of course, it would make sense for her to use her particular type of communication when I had made talking so difficult for her, but she had yet to choose to give me her thoughts. I smiled again as I thought of the moans and groans that could hardly pass her lips for the damage I had inflicted upon her throat. She had been unusually strong but was weakening quickly now that she had been in my hands for two nights.

The anticipation of the sweet moment when she would break tested my patience. I had grown curious, not only of the events that occurred fifteen years ago but of her origins and her connection to Sookie's fae line. I wanted to know more about this scrios heritage. She seemed nothing like what Niall had described when he told me of his great enemy. She was more gentle-natured and strong-willed than volatile and angry. Whatever she was, I was sure that I would have any information I wanted soon. She would tell all, not by conscious choice, but because her body and now her mind was weakening.

I was careless once, and had almost killed her prematurely. I had picked up a lock of her hair in an action I intended to be taunting, but had been flooded with memories of my bonded. I had loved to twist her long hair around my finger, envisioning how she had twisted herself into my life despite all odds. When I shook free from my reverie, I was filled with pain and rage, which I channeled into the scrios in a sick imitation of Sookie's murder.

I had allowed my mind to slip back to the night when I had felt Sookie's death, and in my mind, I was with my bonded as I watched her fight for her life and saw the light fade from her eyes. I grieved more deeply at that moment for my lost love than I had for 15 years. I had not allowed myself to go back to that place in my memories and now I could feel the excavation of my long buried pain. I hadn't expected this and was grieving as though I had just lost my bonded for the second time. Over a minute passed before I pulled myself from my reflections and realized what I had done. It would have served her right to leave her to die this way, but I didn't yet have the information I wanted from her.

I flipped her lifeless body over and halfheartedly blew air into her lungs, slapping her face to see if she would stir. She did not respond and I was considering writing her off when I felt Pam's alarm and heard her leap onto the lanai from next door. She slammed the glass door open, pushed me aside, and began heart compressions along with artificial breaths. We were both momentarily distracted by a slight tremor that shook through the cottage and caused the windows to rattle quietly. I hadn't been aware that Oahu had frequent earthquakes, but the shaking stopped as quickly as it had begun and I discounted it.

I stood alongside my child as she worked for less than a minute before my tormentor seized, coughed and threw up. I jumped aside to avoid her sick and left Pam to clean up the mess she had created. If she was so taken with this woman, she could clean her up. As I walked out the door, I turned to Pam, "Do not give her your blood," I ordered and took to the sky.

I would have to wait a little longer for justice, but her time would come. I flew down toward her property and aimed for the land near the safe-room. I wanted to smell this human-fairy hybrid that Pam had mentioned. Maybe I would recognize the scent. I decreased my speed and lowered myself to the ground, and just before my feet touched the soil, I heard the earth shifting again. This was no ordinary earthquake; it appeared to be emanating from this property, probably from the safe room. I returned to the sky. If someone within was working on getting out, I needed to get my answers quickly.

So here I stood, watching my unconscious prey. It was time to change my approach, continued oxygen deprivation was not wise and would be counter productive. The words and flickers of images I was getting from her mind as she revived told me that she was sufficiently confused and disoriented. Her thoughts bounced around between a number of languages, especially Japanese and some Middle Eastern language with which I was not familiar.

Again I found myself curious as to her identity on a more personal level than I should have been for someone I was torturing and would eventually kill. I had to force myself to keep focused on my goal. It was time for me to stop reflecting on these most memorable nights and to cause the pain that would bring her back to clarity so she could give me the information I needed and some that I wanted. The oxygen deprivation I had relied on to weaken her mind and body had been effective as it always was. Now came the more satisfying part of my plan.

When she started to stir, I straddled her hips and began to talk to her about my plans. I knew she wasn't processing my words so I continued talking to her while I waited for a sign, occasionally throwing in some bit of information that was bound to get a reaction from her once she was able to understand what I was saying. Her expressions were initially perplexing; she was finally making eye contact with me, but she was looking at me with what I could only read as love and compassion. I was disgusted and wondered whose face she was really seeing.

Finally I knew she was hearing me when she gagged as I spoke of further torture. I was so very close to my goal. Her mind rambled through silent pleas for peace, but I would give her none. I grabbed her face roughly and felt her fists lightly try to brush my arm away. Her touch further infuriated me. I watched her every expression and savored her unguarded emotions and the way her eyes now melted into mine. She was almost ready to tell me anything I wanted. Her despair made me gleeful and erased the weakness that had been brought about by thoughts of my bonded. I moved my hands to her ribs and smiled as I squeezed hard enough to snap her bottom rib on each side.

Her response was as satisfying as I had hoped. She tried to scream but couldn't take in enough air due to the pain. Her scream turned into shallow gasps and wheezing cries. Tears ran down her face and she trembled violently. I gave her a brief break and unbidden images flashed through my mind. She was trying frantically to find an escape in her thoughts. I saw the ocean, a large flat rock, a short woman with light brown hair, a starry sky, a dark haired young man.

The images faded to red-tinted static and in the absence of her thoughts, I grew curious as to why she held her hands tightly closed. Clearly it took effort and made her hands less efficient as a source of defense. I reached down and picked up her hand and was amazed when this simple action elicited her first words. She begged me not to open her hand, stumbling around with some nonsense about her not being able to do something and her response further piqued my curiosity. I growled when I realized that I had been made a fool of when she smiled as I opened her hand and found myself challenged again by the scent of her blood that she had drawn by digging her fingernails into her palm. I wondered if she had deliberately tempted me with her blood in the hopes that I would kill her quickly. I would not. I was stronger than that; only a young vampire with no control would fall for that lure. She may think that she had won this little skirmish, but I would win the war.

I questioned her another time, and when she did not respond, I slid my hands a little higher on her ribcage and broke another two, oops three ribs. I was able to complete one more round before her eyes began to dilate as she slid toward physiological shock and I decided it was time for a longer rest so that she didn't lose her ability to cooperate. She would be ready soon.

o-o-o

As her eyes closed, her mind opened fully to me and I entered her dreams. I felt what she felt, saw what she saw and it was absolutely fascinating. She was dreaming of a lover. My initial reaction was to pull her from her dream, to deny her this respite, but my anger was tempered by strategy and I reminded myself that this lover was probably the man she was protecting in the safe room. This might be her way of breaking, and of telling me what I needed to know. I sat back, still straddling her hips since that was the best position for access to her ribs, and decided to enjoy the show.

By the simple act of closing my eyes, I became her. Through the clear and detailed memories of her body, I felt her passion build as large hands stroked over her warm, wet flesh, a clever mouth tasted and skilled fingers stroked. Despite my desire to know the identity of her lover, I was grateful that her eyes were either closed or focused on his body rather than his face. This experience was too amazing to pass up, and seeing his face would distract me from learning first hand about the considerable sensations the female body could receive. I had provided this pleasure to countless women, seen evidence of it on their faces and in the actions of their bodies, but to feel it myself was miraculous.

I was so caught up in her pleasure that my own body responded in kind, and I stroked myself through my jeans. She was now being lovingly dried with a towel and carried to a bed where her generous lover continued to entice and excite her, causing sensations so powerful that when she climaxed in her dreams, I came in my pants.

Her passion for this man was deep and true, this was not a passing affair, but profound love. It was easier to understand her resistance upon being immersed in her emotions and passion for this man. I would have more work to do before she would hand him over to me, but I would have him. My triumph over her would be that much more satisfying knowing how dearly she treasured this man.

I could feel powerful arms and a broad chest passing under her greedy fingers as she explored the contours of his body and felt her jerk her hips in anticipation as he pressed against her entrance but did not penetrate. There was a pause thick with anticipation that had me growling with desire and need and then I heard her lover's voice demand, "Look at me." In her dreams, her eyes snapped open and I found myself looking up at my own impassioned face.

I froze in stunned disbelief and anguish, and then was further tormented as I felt Sookie's amazement and pleasure when, in her memories, I pressed myself firmly into her, filling her completely.

I roared in horror filled agony and jumped up and away from…her. Not possible! This was not possible. It was not possible that this woman…this woman I had spent the last two nights torturing to the very edge of death and sanity was my lover, my wife, my...Sookie.

It could not be. But it was…she was…there was no way that her memory had been false. I painfully unlocked my own memories from my treasured times with Sookie, and found that the events were exactly the same as what I had just witnessed, down to the last detail. It could not be, but it was.

I was unable to look at her; unwilling to face what I had done and I fled from the room, dove off the lanai and stood at the water's edge, staring at my hands. How? How was this possible? What had I done? My hands. My lover was somehow alive and I had hurt her again and again with these hands. These hands that were meant only to bring her pleasure and keep her safe and that had been so empty for the last fifteen years had almost killed that which I needed most. I clenched my fists and ground them into the rocks in self-hatred.

But how could she have allowed me to touch her that way? She could have stopped me at any moment with only a few words or thoughts. I grabbed my head and drowned in my despair, reliving every harsh touch, every hateful thing I did and said to her. I had carelessly ended her life, and without Pam's intervention, I never would have known that I had killed my own cherished lover. I shuddered at the thought. How had I made this error?

I was to blame for my actions, I accepted the responsibility for my actions, but why had she encouraged my misperception? And how was it that she was alive? Everything I had seen and felt convinced me that she had been killed in that swamp. If I hadn't seen her thoughts, I would still be certain that she was dead. So what had happened?

Had someone finally managed to glamour her into forgetting who she was so she moved on to live another life without a thought of her previous existence? Had someone kidnapped her, faked her death, changed her in some pivotal way and made her into this new being? Is this why she'd left me without a word? She'd had no choice? And Pam had mentioned a son…Sookie had a son? But Pam had said that he appeared to be in his twenties. That wasn't possible unless she'd had him before meeting Bill and I know that wasn't possible, she'd been a virgin, I was sure of it.

The individual Pam had smelled with Stackhouse blood and the fairy heritage was undoubtably her son, could he simply age faster through childhood than a regular human? That wasn't too far outside the realm of possibility after seeing what she was capable of now. Who could the father be? He must be someone of incredible power, maybe he was the scrios. Did they turn their mates, change them the way Sookie had been changed?

I found myself becoming incensed and jealous at the thought of her bearing a son by another man and I was disgusted with the thought that maybe she wasn't a willing participant in the process. She loved the child though; there was no question about that. She had been willing to give her life for him by keeping her silence. And there was someone powerful in that safe room. Was the child that powerful, or was it the father?

I stood there on the rocky shoreline contemplating each and every piece of information Pam had ever tried to tell me and every infinitesimal sign Sookie had given me, and decided that Sookie had known me for who I was. She had her memory intact. Her tears at our meeting in her yard, her unwillingness to make eye contact, the minimal fight she gave Pam after displaying much more talent when chasing an unidentified vampire and...my dead heart ached with pain as I recalled the loving gaze she bestowed upon me moments before I caused her horrible pain. I had my answer; I now knew whose face she was seeing. If I could vomit, I would have from the horror caused by that thought.

She had known me and had loved me still, even after everything I had done to her. Her dream confirmed this but she would hate me now and with ample reason. If she had her right mind she would put a stake in my heart at her first opportunity and I would be tempted to applaud her on her way.

I now understood why she had fought so hard to avoid eye contact with me. The connection between us had been so deep that opening a channel to those emotions and memories while I was being so cruel must have been unendurable.

I wished that I could find a reason to believe that this was not my Sookie, but an impostor with her memories, but there were too many other signs that it truly was her and Pam had lined almost all of them up for me and I had been unwilling to listen to her.

I thought back with regret to the first moments we had together, when I heard Pam's partial call and then felt her rage, fear and confusion as her mind was being controlled. I responded, ready to protect my misbehaving child from an angry scrios, only to see the ghost of my lover standing at the water's edge. I had been unable to make sense of what I was seeing; I was so overwhelmed with the longing and love coursing through my body. Touching her was like stepping back in time, falling into a dream, except she was unresponsive to my touch and unwilling to look at me. When she finally opened her eyes, I saw the difference and then…her scent… The scent that I had sought obsessively for 15 years…planning, plotting, waiting…was in my hands at last.

It angered me even more that my lover's murderer had teased me by looking so much like her. I didn't allow any further exploration. I thought I knew what was before me and I followed the course of action I had set the moment I found the stone covered with her blood fifteen years ago.

What if I had taken a little more time to talk with her, connect with her…would she have relented, found comfort in my arms as she had in her dream? I would have killed anyone or have risked my own life to keep her from being hurt in this way by another, and in the end, I was the one hurting her.

I raised my eyes, "What have I done?" I asked the heavens.

How could I proceed? What was my next step? Even my mind, so good at dissecting and assessing convoluted situations to my benefit was staggered by this turn of events. Slowly I mastered myself enough to return to the room. Pam was on the lanai with tears running down her face. She embraced me as I grieved for Sookie's pain and she grieved for my torment. As I allowed Pam to comfort me, her words ran through my head with a hollow clanging, 'Please d_on't hurt her Eric, you will never forgive yourself.'_

She had been right. All along. My child had been right and I had ignored her to spare myself the painful thoughts of my lost lover. I had failed all of us in so many ways.

o-o-o

I could feel that the night was waning, and I knew that I had to return to the other room to care for Sookie and I hated myself even more for my cowardice. I did not want to see the damage I had caused or see the hate and fear that would be in her eyes. Reluctantly, I left Pam and jumped over the lanai partition, and forced myself to look at her for the first time with a lover's eyes. What I saw utterly destroyed me.

My Sookie was splayed upon the hard floor, her bruised arms lying useless beside her with cuts on each palm from where her fingernails had dug in as she struggled and resisted against me. Her hair and clothes were tangled and soiled and her beautiful face was swollen and bruised and liberally streaked with salty lines of dried tears. Her split lips and her chest trembled as she gasped for shallow, inefficient breaths.

I walked slowly towards her, but she appeared to sense my presence and her breathing became more labored as she moved minutely away from me. I knew I had to get her into a warm bed so I ignored the pain that her fear caused me and I gathered her up, oh so gently in my arms. At first she resisted me, but then she relaxed against my chest and I held her close for the first time in fifteen years and also for what I knew might the be the last time. I reluctantly placed her on the bed sheet and covered her with the fluffy white comforter. I did not tuck her in, wanting to avoid making her feel trapped.

Seeing her lying there, the white comforter making her many bruises stand out even more, I felt like the most vile creature ever to exist. I had never questioned or regretted my techniques for controlling my enemies. Torture and the use of violent solutions to solve problems is a part of who I am as a vampire and as a thousand year old man. I have been able to temper the need for violence significantly in the last hundred years, but it had always been a part of my life, of who I am. But this…this mistake threatened to damage something within me and I wondered if I would ever be able to torture an enemy again. If I were broken, as I felt I was right now, I would not survive long in my world. How ironic would it be if the torturer was the one who broke in the end?

I felt not like a powerful man or vampire, I felt that I had become a despicable variant of the word man. I had always felt that the lowest form of life was a man who used his strength to overpower or abuse women or children he knew and supposedly loved. When I had killed, even when I had fucked and then killed women, it was for the relief and the blood, not for the sick power an abuser seeks. I had never raised a hand to a woman who trusted or cared for me so that I could feel more powerful. Anger washed through me when I acknowledged that this situation had made me break one of my most cardinal rules that had guided my behavior as a human and a vampire.

Pam came into the room with a warm washcloth and began gently washing Sookie's face. Initially Sookie withdrew and then she relaxed into the warmth. Pam didn't look at me, but she began to talk quietly, "Eric, I know what you're feeling, but it's not true. You didn't do this to her, the woman you love. You did this to the person who took her from you, who killed her. Don't punish yourself for something that was so far out of your control." I didn't respond. I was grateful for her words, but it would be only Sookie's opinion that would matter. Only Sookie had the right to punish or exonerate me.

I needed her to recover, to wake so I could resolve these overwhelming feelings that I didn't know how to handle. It was all I could do to stop myself from biting my wrist and feeding her my blood. I wanted her better now, but I resolved not to force anything on her ever again. She would have to make the choice to accept the healing and the bond that would accompany my blood. I didn't have the slightest clue if she would accept it, or me for that matter.

I didn't know this woman anymore. Who was she now? How had her essence been so completely altered? How did she look so young? This woman could hardly be older than 24 or 25 years old and Sookie should be in her forties now. Where were her scars? There was no sign of them, her tan skin was flawless except where I had damaged it. I ached to stroke her face and hair, but couldn't bring myself to touch her, fearing that her anxiety would delay her healing.

Since I could not help her, I sent Pam to fetch some items from the local market, instructing her to explain to the staff that her human friend had the flu and to ask for advice for food and care products. She returned with tissues, Tylenol, Theraflu, ginger ale, bottled water, soup, crackers and Chap Stick. I sat in my chair alongside her bed until near sunrise, watching her every breath and movement, waiting for her to rouse, but she did not wake. I even opened the doors to allow in the night breeze in hopes that she might gain some peace and strength from it as she appeared to do the night before, but I saw no changes in her as a result.

I quietly debated with Pam what we should do with her during the day. Pam was concerned that she would wake and wander around the grounds drawing attention to her damaged state. I was worried that she would wake alone and spend the day too weak to move and be afraid and in pain.

We decided that the kindest and safest option would be to give her more sleeping pills to help her to rest through the day, this time my motive being to heal her rather than hurt her. My promise not to force anything on Sookie anymore had lasted only a few hours, I was disgusted with myself. The moment I gently placed my hand behind her neck to incline her so she could take the pills and some water, she started to panic. I looked beseechingly at my child and she took my place, receiving a less violent reaction as she forced the medication down Sookie's throat.

I secluded myself in Pam's room and sat with my head in my hands, wondering how in the hell all of this had happened and listening to Sookie whimper as Pam confined her to bed for the day.

SPOV

I awoke with great trepidation, awaiting the return of new pain. My existing injuries were constant dull aches and stabbing pains in my ribs and throat, but the sharpest edge of the pain had been removed. I wondered how much time had passed. Eric was nowhere to be seen, but I was sure he was nearby. Simply the thought of him made my heart pound frantically. I began to fully panic when the door opened and was surprised to see Pam enter. She was dressed in a blue and white button down cotton shirt with red accents and white shorts, she looked crisp and cool and was carrying a bottle of water. I gave a dry laugh that had nothing to do with humor as I prepared for my friend to join in with my torture.

Pam stood by the bed and looked at me with sad, red-rimmed eyes, maybe Eric was forcing her to do this. Her expression perplexed and worried me, I was used to a much more stoic Pam. She moved to sit on the edge of the bed…wait; I was in a bed…when had that happened? As she sat down next to me, my body shied away from her, terrified of the pain that was to come. Pam placed an arm behind my head and back and helped me to sit up a bit and brought the bottle to my mouth. The liquid stung my cracked lips, but was pure heaven in my mouth as it wet my dry tongue, cheeks and burning throat. I closed my eyes in ecstasy as I took one small painful sip and three larger gulps.

My stomach revolted and I immediately threw up. Water cascaded over the white comforter that covered my body. I heard Pam groan in disgust and felt her pull back the comforter, rolling it up and placing it at the foot of the bed. I was now covered only by a thin sheet and I felt very exposed. I turned my head away from her and tried to curl into a ball on my side. As I shifted, my ribs screamed in protest and I settled for crossing my weak forearms over my upper chest. In this position, I realized that I was trembling. I hadn't noticed that until I touched my hands to my arms. I must still be injured and weakened to be having this reaction.

I also felt more emotionally drained. I didn't know if it was the general fatigue, the prolonged pain, lack of food or the involvement of my former friend who actually knew who I was, but I found my more closely guarded emotions reaching the surface. I was sad that Pam had been involved in this process, it cut deep into my psyche and I knew this was Eric's intent. He was very good at what he did.

Pam sighed and stood up abruptly. She pulled the comforter from the foot of the bed and walked out the door, closing it behind her. I heard another door open and close and when she returned, she placed a new comforter over me and tucked in the material at the foot of the bed.

I slowly turned my head to her and opened my eyes, searching her for a clue as to what she was doing. Kindness was not a predominant trait for Pam. She then completely bowled me over when she pulled a chap stick from her pocket and gently ran it over my cracked lips. I flinched as she passed over the deepest crack a few times. Finally she sat back, crossed her arms and legs and glared at me. I felt my breathing rate increase with my anticipation of more pain. Her eyes narrowed but she didn't touch me. Instead she demanded through clenched teeth, "Why, Sookie?"

As I tried to process what she had asked and what was really going on, I was sucked back into darkness.

o-o-o

When I awoke again, I was surprised to find that my head and thoughts felt clearer than they had for what felt like days and days. It was night again and I realized that my internal clock must be reversed since I had not seen a hint of day since Eric brought me here. I had no idea how much time had passed since my nightmare had begun. I carefully shifted in bed and groaned at the pain in my ribs which now only hurt badly rather than feeling like they were shredding me up on the inside. Although it was awful, I could handle this kind of pain, this was nothing new to me. My heart rate increased and more intense pain ripped through my head, chest and ribs when I looked at Eric's empty chair. I was sure he would be returning soon. He had managed to break my spirit and self-control during the last part of his torture, not just with the physical pain, but when I had finally been unable to avoid his gaze. All my memories of our time together came flooding back and the juxtaposition of his hate and my memories of our love together had brought their own pain and grief. I teared up at the memory of his hatred and at the fear of more pain at his hands. I didn't have much will left, but I would continue to try and resist him.

At the moment, Eric was nowhere in sight. I tried to be as quiet as I could to discourage him from returning to me, I needed this time to pull myself together. I controlled my breathing using the meditation techniques I had learned and slowly found myself in better command of my body and mind. If I could just get outside for a few minutes, to pull a little energy from the rocks, water and sky, I could glue myself together to face whatever lay ahead.

I looked over at the sliding door and tried to determine the feasibility of making it there, so I tested my body, beginning at my shoulders and back. That was a mistake, my broken clavicle screamed in pain when I shrugged my shoulders and I had to wait a few minutes before I could try again. This time, I moved my back and my right shoulder only and found this tolerable although my ribs were a constant source of pain. I was stiff and my back was sore from impacts on the hard floor and from stabilizing myself to limit movement to my ribs. Then I moved each of my extremities. I could tell that they were covered in bruises and I was pretty sure that my left arm was broken just above my wrist and my right ankle was swollen and possibly broken. Despite the damage to my body, I knew that I would be able to somehow make it outside, it was my only chance at healing.

I saw a bottle of water at my bedside and a hazy memory of Pam helping me surfaced. Why had Eric sent Pam to help me? I thought about the good cop bad cop routine, perhaps this was part of the plan; make me feel hopeful and allow me to begin to heal and then as he put it, "begin again." I shuddered and felt nauseous at the thought. He had taken me to such a bad place that games hardly seemed necessary. I was already worried about what I had told him. I could come up with no recollections from after the time that he broke my ribs and to be honest, I was glad I couldn't remember anything else.

I decided to try. I wasn't expecting to escape. I just needed to be outside for a few minutes. I slowly pushed myself up to sit on the side of the bed, desperately holding back a groan from the pain in my ribs and clavicle, but had to stop here for quite a while as my vision blacked over and my head spun sickeningly. I was sure I would throw up or pass out, but the feeling slowly faded while I grew accustomed to sitting.

I did some more slow breathing and I felt my equilibrium return before opening my eyes. The room wasn't spinning, that was a good thing, but I was shaking and had broken into a sweat. Carefully, testing the strength of my right arm in case my legs failed me, I lowered my feet to the floor and stood, taking most of my weight on my left foot. My feet screamed in protest and my knees trembled, but they held me. I waited again while my head cleared and my vision returned. I knew this reaction had to do with blood flow and blood pressure, but it was resolving, so I wasn't worried. My concerns about brain damage appeared to be thankfully unfounded so far.

I limped unsteadily to the lanai. I could tell by the sound of the ocean, that this was one of the cottages that hugged the shoreline. The one I had stayed in, had allowed me to slip down to the ground from the lanai without much trouble. I hoped that this was the same or that it had a similar set up. Exiting this way would decrease my chance of meeting any guests and staff to whom I would be unable to explain my physical state. I was sure I looked gruesome at the very least.

I stepped onto the lanai, staring out at the black ocean, only an occasional star and a slightly brighter cloud cover, which identified the placement of the moon, illuminated the night. It was a stormy night and the wind picked up my hair and refreshed my body. I had never felt anything more welcome than the warm breeze hitting my damaged body. I closed my eyes, raised my right arm to the side and took a breath. I could feel the energy of nature tingling along my skin, caressing away my fatigue and reawakening my powers. Yes, this was where I needed to be.

I opened my eyes and shrieked hoarsely, falling backward into an empty chair. Pam stood before me, with one eyebrow raised and her hands on her hips. "Now Sookie, where is it that you might be going?" she asked.

I just gaped at her like a fish my grandmother, my human grandmother would say.

"It's a good thing that you fell into the chair, Eric would have killed me if I allowed you to get so much as another scratch on you, and I know that I can't tolerate another minute of nurse duty." She was dressed in a light blue halter dress and tan thong flip-flops tonight. So I hadn't been imagining it, she had called me Sookie the last time I remembered seeing her. Did they really know, or was this part of the game? I waited, frozen in my seat for some indication of what she was going to do next.

She sighed irritably, sat down across from me and crossed her arms and ankles. "Please Sookie," she said, rolling her eyes a little, "relax. You are in danger no more. Your secret is out," she frowned, "although I don't have a clue why you fought so hard to keep it in the first place."

I was going to ignore that and focus on the perception I was getting from her that I would be free to go if that's what I desired. I was in desperate need to be on the rocks and in the water. I could feel my healing with only the breeze and I needed more. I needed the earth to help me.

I spoke freely for the first time in what felt like days, "I was going to the water." My voice was gravely and I had to carefully clear my swollen throat to say those six words, but the pain was tolerable.

She narrowed her eyes and tapped her foot, "Why?" she asked suspiciously.

I thought through many different answers to her question, but the easiest one seemed best, "I need it," I said with my voice breaking on the second word. It was only then that I realized how very true that statement was. I needed the earth. It had become part of my being, over the years that I had been here, I had become more and more tied to the earth and her powers were tied to mine.

Pam's eyes widened as she looked at me, nodded and then stood. She looked over her shoulder at the other room before saying, "He's not here right now, but he'll find us quickly. He won't be happy that I risked further injury to you by allowing this."

My mind swam, immediately assuming he wouldn't want me to be given freedoms only to be confused by Pam's words, it sounded as though he was worried about my safety and well-being. I shook off my confusion, stood slowly and began to limp toward the edge of the lanai.

Pam made a tisking sound with her tongue and rolled her eyes again before picking me up and jumping gently to the ground. I hissed as my body was jostled, but nodded at her to keep going. I directed her over the edge of what appeared to be the low cliff to the hidden pathway that wound through the trees to my haven. She made her way flawlessly over the root-strewn pathway to the crescent shaped beach and I told her to place me with my lower half in the water on the rock seat I loved.

I leaned back, sighed and allowed the waves to wash over me, cleaning me, healing me. My small cuts stung from the salt water, but I welcomed the healing and the water into my body. Each time the water rolled back from my body, I envisioned it pulling away my pain and removing the toxins left behind by stress and fear. My breathing matched the pace of the waves and soon we were in sync.

I turned my hands down to the rocks and pressed my palms flat against the smooth surface. Her energy was cool and less dramatic than the sea, but I needed her power even more. I felt her energy slowly seeping into my body from every point of contact and make its way through my cells as the healing occurred inside this time. I felt muscles loosen, swelling decrease and in one horribly painful moment, I felt my ribs, clavicle and wrist shift into place.

I had been so relaxed that I was not prepared for this abrupt of a healing and I cried out briefly in pain. I heard feet move on the rocks and then stop when I became quiet again. Pam must have realized that I was fine and had decided to leave me alone.

I returned my focus to the earth and once again gratefully welcomed her strength. I continued to feel healing in my neck, extremities, face and deep within my skull. I could actually feel a bubbling, like carbonated water in certain areas as my brain healed. I released a deep sigh that I had not been aware I was holding and relaxed, the pain almost completely gone.

The waves became more insistent and I did not fight her will. I allowed myself to be lifted and I floated serenely in her arms sending my thanks to the earth, sky and water for sharing their powers with me.

While I floated there, suspended in the arms of the water, I felt Hunter's mind reach out and touch mine. He sent me memories of the events that had occurred in the safe-room over the last few days. I was amazed as I watched my son progress from fear to rage to a form of acceptance. I observed his structured planning for his future without me, seeing him following our set procedures to safely escape the area during the day and moving on with a new life very much like what I had done when I left Bon Temps. I was filled with gratitude and love when he told me of his plans for relocating Macey's family and Pua to ensure their safety.

Then I watched in awe as his actions triggered his bloodline, allowing him to accept the pa and begin to develop his powers of healing, manipulation of fire and heat, and glamouring. His development happened much faster than mine, probably because of his need and the fact that he had watched me go through the steps while he was growing up. He had always been ready and eager to enter this phase of his life.

Emotional peace settled over me to match my physical relief as I realized that Hunter would be safe. I had done all I could for him; he was now as strong or stronger than I was and could take care of himself. It was time for me to let him go...give him his wings as Macey had always tried to encourage me to do. My relief was tempered by the weight of the extreme price that we all had to pay to reach this point where I could willingly let him go.

Now I could rest. I sighed out loud in soul-deep relief and sent him my love and mental pictures from my healing and I gave him the few bits of new information Eric had told me about our genetic lineage. He accepted the knowledge with calm determination. He would be leaving Hana and going out on his own no matter what happened; he had made his decision.

The last thoughts he sent to me were filled with Eric's reaction to learning my true identity. Hunter had been able to read his mind by that point and Macey, the poor thing could not avoid his emotions. I listened, brokenhearted to Eric's torment, grief and guilt as he waited, begged and hoped for my recovery and for some knowledge to help him understand what had happened over the last few days and years to give him some point of reference. How could he ever forgive me?

I floated in the water, healing still and debating what my next steps should be now that Hunter was as safe as I could make him and Eric knew my true identity. I felt a shiver of cold work its way along my skin, I had been here long enough and had to get warm and find some food and water to give me the strength to face my future.

I opened my eyes and found Eric standing in the water only a few feet from me. The moon was clear now and the bright light was shining down on him, illuminating his long hair and adding a shine to his beautiful eyes and tear streaked face. He gazed at me with an expression of amazement etched over deep grief. I put my feet on the sandy bottom of the inlet and stood up. Although I still trembled lightly from exhaustion, I could feel my powers beginning to pulse quietly within me. I would recover.

I disconnected myself from the nature around me and could hear Eric's thoughts. He was standing completely still; afraid to move toward me, worried that he might frighten me. His pain was as real as mine had been, but perhaps even worse since he would have to live with the guilt of unknowingly, but viciously and eagerly hurting the one he loved. He still loved me...

His guilt warred with both confusion and muted fury that was rightfully directed at me for my deceptions. I had manipulated him, forced his hand, and flat out lied to him, making him do things he would never have done otherwise.

I didn't need his thoughts to inform me, I was well aware that this particular chain of events was entirely my fault. I had caused this to happen, first by my volatile reactions in Oakland and then by my choices. Yet, I knew that I would make the same choices if I had to do this all over again. The only regret I had for taking the steps I did to protect Hunter and the rest of my family, was that I had hurt Eric in the process. I always seemed to hurt Eric when I tried to protect myself or Hunter, and that I deeply regretted.

"Sookie?" he whispered and I had to close my eyes as his pain and torment ran through me. Now he was the one in pain.

I deliberately made another choice that would alter the direction of my life. I knew how I could relieve some of his pain, but I wasn't sure that he would allow me to do it...that he would forgive me. I looked deeply into his eyes, reading every tumultuous thought for a few minutes to make sure I had assessed the situation correctly before I once again took my life into my own sphere of control, nodded and slowly held out my hand to him.

His eyes widened in shock at my gesture rather than the confirmation of my identity and then he was right in front of me, staring at me as though my thoughts were written in my eyes. He paused a few moments to make sure I wasn't going to pull away and then he scooped me up so tenderly that I could feel his love wrap around me like the warmth of the sun. I turned myself into him to return the embrace and we both held the other as we cried for our losses and our shared pain. He calmed before I did and as I regained my composure, he settled us on my rock seat in the water with me sitting across his lap.

He freed his hands and with whisper light touch, he ran them over my cheeks, eyes, lips and into my wet hair and followed each touch with the light trailing of his soft lips. His mouth wasn't really kissing me, but more feeling the contours of my face with the sensitive skin of his lips. This was the reunion I had dreamt about, the touch I had craved for so long. I was not yet able to return the gesture with the exception of running my fingers across his light brow and down his strong cheek to his jaw. I could feel the dam that had held me together for so long begin to crumble so I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the incredible sensations of his touch.

After a few minutes, he nuzzled his face in my neck and breathed in my scent before groaning in grief and self-loathing. He took my face gently in his hands, so I felt cherished rather than trapped as he tenderly kissed my lips. It was a soothing kiss of exploration and re-acquaintance rather than passion and I whimpered with cautious joy from having his lips touching mine again.

Too soon, he pulled back and looked at me with wonder and sorrow and said, "How?" he shook his head and his voice cracked as he said, "Why?" My peaceful moment faded, our reunion halted...we were back where we had started. I sighed lightly with regret and shivered thinking about all that he would want to know, and how I would hurt him with my words.

"You're cold, let's return to the cottage before discussing anything." He scooped me up and we flew back to the cottage where we landed lightly on the lanai. I hated the idea of going back into that room and Eric sensed my reluctance. He picked me up again and jumped to the other side of the partition. Pam was relaxing in a chair with a True Blood. He told her that I was going to be staying here and to pack up all her things to stay on the other side. I hated to inconvenience her, but didn't say anything; I just couldn't face seeing that room again and I didn't want to be in my house alone.

EPOV

I carefully placed Sookie on the bench seat in the large bathroom and enlisted Pam's help with removing her wet clothing. She was trembling with cold, so my only goal was to get her warm. My child dressed her quickly in one of the sleep shorts sets she had acquired from the local store in Hana. I returned to the bathroom and then wrapped one of the hotel's fluffy robes around her tightly, after removing and hiding the belt. I scooped her up again and took her to the bed, tucking a pillow behind her back and brought her a bottle of water which she drank with trembling hands while I heated some soup for her in the microwave.

I brought the thin noodle soup to the bed in a large mug so that she could drink it rather than using a spoon. She finished it quickly and I handed her another mug as soon as she was done. When she had emptied that mug I took the dishes back to the small sink and then I stood back, unsure of how to proceed now that her hunger and thirst were cared for.

She had allowed me to touch her without being fearful of me, but I worried that she would not be comfortable with me near her when she was so helpless in bed. Her eyes had been on my face since they opened while she was in the water. A gentle expression that I was sure I would never see again filled her beautiful blue eyes and I couldn't stay away from her, so I crossed the room and knelt by the edge of her bed staring at her, trying to make sense of her. She started to say something a few times, but when she finally communicated with me, it was nothing I could possibly have expected.

She sent me a memory of the first night I has stayed with her after I was cursed by Hallow. I had asked to stay in her bed until sunrise and she welcomed me...had even held my hand as she fell asleep. Her actions had been so caring and kind that I had fallen in love with her at that moment, even without my memories. Of course I was already in love with her, I just hadn't been aware of it at the time.

She looked up at me and I knew that she was asking me to provide her with the same kind of comfort. I kicked off my shoes, and then realized that I was soaking wet so I raised one hand to her to tell her to wait while I returned to my room to change into dry pants and wash the evidence of my tears from my face. I returned in ten seconds, and walked slowly to the other side of the bed, giving her time to change her mind.

She didn't change her mind; she slid down in the bed and turned to face me, her head resting on the pillow. I climbed in the generous bed, fully dressed and slid across the cotton sheets until my hand found hers. As our fingers met, I felt a connection that seemed to reach in through my hand and travel all the way to my silent heart. Something deep within me relaxed and I closed my eyes and simply enjoyed the sensation of holding my heart in my hand.

I spent the next two hours watching every small movement she made as she slept. She had been miraculously returned to me...returned from the dead, changed and yet still the same. I watched in amazement as Sookie slowly moved closer to me in her sleep. She curled herself into my side and placed her head on my shoulder as she had so many times before. I cautiously rested my chin on the top of her head and gently stroked her hair and her beautiful face. Now more than ever, in this peaceful sleep, she looked like the woman I had known fifteen years ago.

She slept for another hour before waking with a start and a gasp. I held her to me and didn't allow her to pull away until she relaxed again. Tentatively she looked up at me as though she thought I was an apparition. She slowly raised her hand and ran her fingertips along my temple and down my jaw before snuggling in closer and breathing in my scent deeply. Everywhere she touched tingled, my skin longed to be closer to her, to make sure that she was real. Her hand was still on my cheek but she pulled back a little, locked her gaze with mine and allowed her other hand to trial down my neck and arm and under my shirt to gently explore my stomach and chest.

I was shocked, this was very welcome, but certainly not what I expected from tonight. I didn't expect that she would want to be anywhere near me after what I had done to her. But if she was more comfortable renewing our physical relationship before talking, then I was all for it. I knew how hard this discussion would be on her, but…I placed my hand on hers, halting her motions. She looked at me with worry in her eyes, "So long as we talk later," I said clearly, she nodded. I could sense her relief and knew that I would have to work to get her to open up with me enough to have this difficult conversation.

I released her hand and watched her in amazement as she touched my body. My temperature increased everywhere that her skin met mine and I craved more…more of her. Finally I couldn't hold myself back anymore. I placed my hands ever so gently on the sides of her face and I shuddered as I thought of how I had hurt this incredible woman. I kissed her still bruised cheeks and then each brow and her jaw before lowering my lips to hers. She gasped as I began to kiss her with a feather light touch. I swore that I would erase every memory she had of my rough hands and I would never give her reason to fear me again.

She tasted amazing, so sweet. Her flavor was familiar and novel at the same time and my fangs ran out. I tried to force them back, but they refused to comply so I simply hoped they would not frighten her. She broke the kiss, but only to pull my shirt over my shoulders and head and I carefully removed her pajama top. I groaned at the contrast of the bruises on her ribs from the familiar perfection of her breasts. They were exactly as I had remembered and I laved them gently with my tongue. If I had seen her naked, I would have known her identity immediately.

I could smell her arousal, and my need for her made me tremble with the effort of my restraint. My lover. The only one who brought me to this point of ecstasy and who awoke these feelings of tenderness and love within me. I stared into her sky blue eyes, overlooking the unfamiliar sparkle, and in that moment, I didn't care if we ever spoke of the past 15 years, all I wanted was her now. I needed her. I loved her. I had her back. She was mine and I would never let her go again.

I reveled in her reactions as she gasped with her pleasure and her body trembled along with mine. I licked the beaded sweat accumulating between her breasts and jerked with shock at the delicious flavor. I had never tasted anything like her before, what was she? What had she become, and how? I had always craved the taste of her, that small part of fae that she carried within her that made her so unique and delicious. But that flavor now paled in comparison to her taste, her scent. She was precious and irreplaceable in so many ways and she was mine.

I placed my hands on her waistband and waited until she nodded her approval before I peeled away the sleep shorts. She was glorious. Her tanned skin was familiar to me but the lean yet strong muscles underneath her taught skin were different from the Sookie I had known. She had never been weak, but this firm and toned body was new. I missed her sweet softness which I had always associated with a fragility that made me feel even more necessary to her, for her safety and her protection.

I was drawn immediately to her sweet center and I closed my eyes and groaned as I tasted her. This nectar was similar to her perspiration, but much more intense in flavor and I had to clench my jaw as I remembered how her blood had tasted...would taste. I would not take any tonight, for fear of hurting her. No, I would wait to enjoy her blood until she was stronger, I wouldn't risk doing anything that would delay her healing.

Her scent spiraled around me, wrapping me up in her essence and every cell in my body begged for more. My primal instincts took over, and I realized that I was growling and panting and knew that if anyone came near her while I was in this state that I would kill them without thought to keep her mine and mine alone. I would need to very carefully protect her from others who would crave her as much as I did.

My fingers found her warmth and began to pleasure her in the ways I remembered she liked best while my tongue and mouth drank in her bounty. I realized after an indiscernible period of time that she was pulling weakly on my hair to bring me back up her body. I refused for another minute until I had brought her to the completion of another orgasm. She gasped out in pleasure and I kept my fingers inside her, enjoying the pulsations of her climax, and I allowed her sounds of pleasure to replace the cries of her pain that rang ceaselessly in my ears.

Once she relaxed, I disengaged myself from her, removed my pants and slowly made my way back up her body. My head was reeling and I was actually dizzy with need for her. I had to make sure to use my utmost restraint with her to avoid aggravating any remaining injuries. I kissed her gently, allowing her to taste herself on my lips and then I paused, giving her time to tell me that this was truly what she wanted from me.

I could have yelled out in gratitude when she spread her legs and directed me to her center. I held myself far enough away that only my first two inches entered her. I cradled her head in my arms, with my weight supported carefully on my elbows, treasuring her and each sensation, every noise and each breath as we gently made love. She tried to press me more fully inside her, but I resisted, loving her with only a portion of myself. Her orgasm was quick and intense and she cried out, a glorious sound that turned into sobs of grief as she clung to me.

I froze and continued to cradle her precious head in my hands as she released what felt and sounded like years of pain and sorrow. She encouraged me to continue while she cried and I decided that this must be therapeutic for her so I gently pushed myself deeper within her incredible warmth and we both sighed in relief.

I was home.

We pleasured each other until she had another climax and I joined her this time, roaring in absolute wonder as I released my tension and need for her. I held her in my arms, her head cradled to my chest for a few minutes before I positioned her along my side with her head on my shoulder where she belonged. Eventually, she relaxed, her tears stopped and she released her tight hold on me and kissed my chest.

I knew in that moment with absolute clarity that it didn't matter what I had to do to make it happen; I would not tolerate one more minute without her by my side.

00-00-00-00

A/N: Phew, we did it! You all are amazing.

The worst is over for Eric and Sookie, but they aren't ready for their HEA just yet. ;) That would be too easy and unrealistic to satisfy me.

Now before anyone says that Sookie forgave Eric too quickly let the remind you that she doesn't believe that he's done anything that requires her forgiveness. Although both of them are victims of circumstance, Sookie was one who deliberately hurt someone she loved (twice), albeit to save Hunter, but she did it deliberately just the same. It's hard to see, but this is who Eric is; he is violent, manipulative and fiercely loyal to those he loves and she knows that and loves him for all of his qualities.

Plus she hasn't really dealt with anything yet...here she is once again avoiding an important conversation...sex is relatively easy for her (especially with Eric), opening up emotionally is much harder.

Yes. Hunter finally accepted the pa, freeing Sookie from her perceived responsibilities to him. We may be hearing from him next chapter, I'm not sure yet. I have a few plot lines that need to be followed and I haven't decided which will come next.

I may take a little longer in posting the next chapter, these last two took a lot out of me emotionally but I'm much better now. RL is also keeping me busy, but it will come as soon as I can get it to you.

Thank you again to all of you who chose to share your thoughts and emotions with me as you read, it is truly amazing to share this process with you.


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: Thank you all for your incredible responses to the last few chapters, I am truly honored by your kind words and support.

It took me a while to shake off the emotional hangover, but I'm up and running again, with a few handicaps that I'll explain after you read this chapter.

o-o-o

Chapter 25

Detour

S~

His mouth was on my breast, his tongue cool, lips soft and fangs sharp; and although he allowed his fangs to have contact with my breast, they never pierced or scratched my skin.

He moved slowly down my body, lingering over the fading bruises over my ribs, kissing and licking away the memories of my pain and fear. His soft hair tickled and his long fingers worked wonders on my breasts and snuck under me to caress the sensitive skin of my lower back. I arched reflexively in response and he hummed with pleasure.

His hands made their way to the elastic of my sleep shorts and stilled, his eyes seeking permission from mine. I nodded and raised my hips a little to allow passage of the material beneath my body. He slid off the edge of the bed and gently moved me with him until my legs were draped over his shoulders. He nuzzled my inner thigh with his cheek and then his nose, and for the first time, Eric's eyes lost their focus on mine. I watched with nervous anticipation as his pupils dilated and he struck at me in a sexual frenzy. Somehow he refrained from biting me, but he was overcome with passion and so was I. He ushered me to orgasm after orgasm, never breaking to allow me to recover and soon I was trembling and gasping with pleasure. I tried to gain his attention by pulling on his hair, but he was lost in my scent and in our reunion.

A wave of dizziness rolled through my head and suddenly I was aware of a disturbance in the room, or maybe just in my mind, I couldn't tell which. I heard a high-pitched noise and then they were there, male and female. One familiar, one not, and my awareness of the sensations Eric was delivering to my body was muted. I was standing together with the two intruders in the cottage, facing away from the bed, and I was dressed in my sleep shorts and top with the hotel robe draped over my shoulders. I groped for the belt to tie the robe, but my hands found none.

I glanced behind me and to my amazement, saw Eric and I; he was on the far side of the bed, still lost in crazed rapture between my legs. I was writhing on the bed, greedily absorbing each sensation, my hands running through his hair, along his face and over my own breasts. We were beautiful together. I looked upon our forms for a long moment, probably too long given the uncertainty of the current situation, but I had a hard time tearing my eyes from the stunning sight of the two of us together this way.

When I finally managed to look away, I tensed for battle, knowing any weak effort I could possibly make right now would be useless against most supes, especially these two. I stared, wide-eyed at the two individuals, the female dressed in black armor, and the male in muted grey that glittered occasionally with blue and white sparkles. I blinked a few times as I wondered what in the world could possibly be happening…and how?

Clovache removed her helmet and smiled at me quickly before extending her right hand to me. I cautiously returned the gesture and we shook hands. Her companion was a huge male. I had never seen a male Britlingen before, but I had always been curious as to what they would be like. If I had thought the female Britlingens were impressive, and I most certainly did, they were nothing compared to the males. This one reminded me of one of the GI Joe or He-Man figurines Jason had played with as a kid.

He too removed his helmet, revealing short, dark brown hair, a chiseled face and hard large brown eyes. He stared at me for a full ten seconds, concern softening his eyes, and then he dropped to one knee and bowed his head, "Serafina," he said reverently. My eyes popped open and I took a shaky step back, whoa, what in the world?

Clovache hit him on the shoulder with her gloved hand and said with an exasperated voice, "She is not Serafina. I told you, Topec. She is Sookie Stackhouse, a sera fae. Stand up, you make her uncomfortable."

He stared at me for a long moment before standing to his considerable height of almost seven feet.

Clovache looked back at me and frowned as she took in my bruised face and obvious weakness. "We are too late. What has happened to you?" She looked over my shoulder to see Eric and I in the bed together and frowned more deeply.

The male, I guess his name was Topec, tensed when he saw Eric, "What is this, Clovache?" he hissed, his eyes bright and body ready to spring into action.

I held up my hands, trying to diffuse some of the tension in the room.

"Vampire," Clovache answered.

Topec's eyes widened and flipped between Eric, Clovache and myself…both of me. "This is a vampire?" he said with interest and began to step forward toward the bed.

"No," I said firmly, moving closer to him, although I didn't have a clue what I could do if he decided he wanted to hurt Eric.

"I want to look, I have never seen this troublesome being our women protect and fight in this world," he said, examining Eric from a distance.

"No, stay back." I snapped and then tried again more gently, "Stay away from him," I instructed. My concern for the danger inherent in this strange situation erased any potential for embarrassment at having two people staring at us while we were sharing this intimate act of love.

"Never mind Topec," Clovache said, placing a hand lightly on his chest. "Sookie, are you ready to go?"

Huh? I looked at Clovache in confusion, "What do you mean 'go'?"

She gave me an irritated look, "You've been identified by the supernatural world, and your secret is out so we're here to train you to defend yourself. We must leave now," she answered in a clipped tone.

I wasn't just hit by a brick; the whole truckload fell on me when I realized what she was saying. Oh my God, it was the Britlingens my makua and Pele had alluded to. They were my ancestors who would train me and they were the ones who had helped me fake my death and break my bond with Eric. Pain shot through my heart at the thought of our lost bond, but I had to push it away so I could focus. I thought back to that night to see if I could find some clue that would identify the Britlingens, but I could find nothing.

"You were the ones who helped me that night?" I shivered as I thought about the invisible hand that had clamped over my mouth and nose, suffocating me, but I had to shake it off, I had more immediate problems.

"Yes, Britanya and I answered the demon's summons and came to your aid," she said with a tight smile. "We delayed intervening further because you were breaking ties with the supernatural world and you needed to raise your son. Now it is time for you to learn."

"Clovache," I said shaking my head. I could hear the pleading tone in my voice, "I can't leave now…I just…" I turned to look back at Eric. My heart ached at the sight of him; we had been through so much and I hadn't been able to explain anything to him yet. I couldn't go before I had the chance to tell him why I was leaving again. That would be unforgivable. Plus I needed more time with him, for myself.

"This is the vampire we freed you from is it not? You can leave him, your blood tie is broken," Clovache stated as though she were confused at my hesitation.

"You must come now before he wakes and injures you further. He has spilled your blood," Topec said with absolute disgust and anger, "he must not be allowed to do so again."

"He didn't…he wouldn't hurt me," I defended Eric; he would never hurt me now that he knew it was me.

"None of this matters" Clovache said to both of us, the portal will open in a few minutes, this is your only chance."

"Why? Why should I go with you, I can already defend myself," I argued lamely.

Clovache raised an eyebrow at me and swept a hand at my bruises, "You are in error if you think you've learned all you need to know," she said seriously. "Are you aware that your actions called the aquae and caelum fairies right to you in California? They traced you by following your powers and your scent. You must learn to control your reactions, exploit your abilities and hide your scent or they will end you and your vampire lover." My breath flew out of me when she said this.

"Why is there debate?" Topec asked incredulously, "Every member of our bloodline from the Serafina to you has been trained by us. We are given one of your years to train you and then you must return here. This is the way of it. There is no debate. You will come."

A year? The thought tore at me, thinking about Eric being without me for another year. I was sure he would wait, but could we tolerate being apart after all that we had been through? Maybe after we had taken the time to talk, but not now, not without explaining what had happened. We both needed answers and we both needed time.

"And if I refuse to go with you?" I asked.

"There has been only one sera fae who refused our assistance, just over 100 of your years ago. He was killed by the caelum fairies very quickly. He was a danger to himself and others and was rightfully destroyed for that reason, as you will be if you remain untrained."

"Why?" I asked, why was I such a target yet again by the fairies.

"You are too powerful and too dangerous, especially without the right training," Clovache said bluntly.

I thought back to the debacle in Oakland, I was too dangerous, too powerful and I had not yet learned how to control my powers. Hadn't I proven that even I didn't trust myself as I fought to control my powers to keep from hurting Eric. I turned back to look at him again, would I invariably hurt him when I lost control or by being a target and get him killed as he tried to protect me? I thought the possibility was pretty high that this would happen. I felt my shoulders slump. I needed to go.

"I want time to talk this out with him. Can you please come back tomorrow night?" I asked, knowing the answer already.

Topec shook his head angrily; "You cannot be around vampires until you can mask your scent. If he tasted your blood, he would not be able to stop, it is much more potent than that of any other fairy. It does not inebriate them, but the power within it calls to the vampire and when they sense that power, they won't resist you. Serafina told us that many of her kind have been killed by vampires."

"That's not true, he tasted my blood and controlled himself. He's stronger than other vampires and he loves me," I said stubbornly.

"He loves your blood, he loves the life you exude, and he loves your power, but he does not love you," Topec said harshly.

"No," I said flatly, sickened by his words. "I will not be going with you, thank you for your offer."

Clovache gave Topec a withering look and turned to me, "Sookie, I know of you. I know of your courage. You helped us to complete our mission of protecting the King of Kentucky. Ignore Topec, he knows nothing of humans and vampires. In our world, sharing even one drop of blood with another is unacceptable."

Topec growled, "It is against our laws and despicable to draw the blood of a sera fae, we are your protectors and your family through Serafina."

His expression told me that I had insulted him, but he has insulted me, so I didn't feel bad in the least.

Clovache held out her hand to me, but I pulled my hands away from her. "We must leave when the portal opens and you must come with us," Clovache answered firmly.

"No, I'll take the risk, I won't leave without talking with him," I said stubbornly.

"Then you will die and you will take him and your son with you," Clovache said, looking sad.

Topec growled and I was hit by a wave of visions that showed Eric and I having a fight in a dimly lit room, during which I lost control and suddenly I was sobbing over a pile of his ashes. The next memory was similar but was in a busy bar and involved Pam. The final vision showed Eric and Pam being killed in battle with the fairies as they tried to protect Hunter and I. I was unable to protect any of us. The visions faded and I looked at Clovache beseechingly.

"Our men have the ability to see potential outcomes for the future. They are not set in stone, but most of your possible pathways end this way. You must be trained. You must come with us," she explained.

"We will allow you to finish…this and then you will come with us," Topec stated, waving a hand at the bed, and then he faded into the background.

Clovache looked at me seriously, "You will return to him soon. This is the only way you will be able to keep him."

I looked back at Eric. When would things with him ever be easy? When would we get some peace? When would I stop hurting him?

I nodded slightly and was immediately thrown back into my body and was once again being ravished by Eric. This time, when I pulled on his hair, he responded by growling and then he led me through to another amazing orgasm before he slowly shook off the haze of lust and magic that had descended on the both of us.

I was panting, when he crawled back up my body that was now trembling from pleasure rather than pain. He paused and looked at me. I had never seen need and desire more clearly etched on a face before and I guided him to me, to the part of me that would welcome his body and make it one with mine again.

I'll never forget the look of relief and focused passion that crossed his face at that moment. He pressed himself into me, but only a little, and then he stopped. I desperately needed him and I tried to pull him closer, but he resisted and made the most passionate and careful love with me that I had ever experienced. The intensity of this action was incredible, the sensations doubled. I could see and touch so much of him and I felt absolutely treasured when he cradled my head in his hands and kissed my forehead as we made love. This most intimate gesture weakened me further. He had never done this before and I was shaken to the core with the abject love he was showing me.

I had never been treated so gently before, and his tender touch, followed by my astounding orgasm shattered all my defenses. I fought it, trying to hold myself together, but each touch, every gaze weakened by defenses. What would happen when my walls fell? Would I cease to be the woman I had fought so hard to create when I left my life behind? Would I fall back into old routines? The thought terrified me, but the love in my heart snaked through the cracks in the wall surrounding it and shattered any remaining defenses I had left, and I broke. For the first time, I was completely at his mercy and as my body clutched around him, my heart was ripped bare and I wailed for all that I had lost, the price we'd had to pay for our choices and for my intense fear of losing him all over again.

Every ounce of pain and grief I had suffered and caused these past fifteen years and some from before that time poured through my body and was released in the form of uncontrollable sobs. There was nothing I could do to stop it, so I urged a concerned Eric to continue and he held me even tighter as he finally made our joining complete and we made love, treasuring each other; each moment, and each touch. We made love with our bodies, eyes and our hearts. I was finally whole and I sobbed even harder, knowing that I would be leaving him again. The only thing that held me even remotely together was that I knew this would be for a finite period of time and then we would be back together again.

I didn't deserve him, but I wanted him desperately.

I hoped I would have time to talk with him after, but a voice in the back of my mind told me that I would not. Thoughts ran through my mind, things I would want to tell Eric and Hunter, and I knew that as I thought them, the words were being transcribed into notes and the letters were secured with a wax seal stamped with a red flame on it. My seal…the seal of my bloodline, the sera fae.

All of this happened in the tiniest corner of my mind so that I never lost focus on Eric and the thoughts only enriched the intensity of our lovemaking.

Eric and I reached completion together and I treasured the sounds of his release. We held each other for longer than we ever had before. I was afraid to let him go, knowing what would happen when I did. Finally, he rolled us over and tucked me into his side with my head on his shoulder. I pulled myself together, released my tight grip on him, and kissed his warm chest.

He hummed with pleasure and met my gaze. I ran my fingers through his mussed hair, brushing it back from his face as I had longed to do for so many years and I whispered, "I love you Eric." I took a breath to say more, but I blinked and I was standing under the bright sun next to Clovache and Topec in a world I had never seen before.

o-o-o-o

365 nights later.

E~

'Where is she?' I texted and pressed send.

'No clue. Obsess much?'

I ground my teeth together. "She is due back tonight. I am waiting.'

'Good 4 u.'

I glared at the screen. That little shit. If I had any clue where he was, I'd wring his neck. He had been a source of both constant irritation and amazingly enough, entertainment since before he was released from the safe room in Hana. He was my only lifeline to Sookie, I knew she would contact him first when she returned from wherever the fuck she had been for the last year, and so I endured his ceaseless jabs.

Another text came through, 'Did u decide?'

'Yes. I'm following your suggestion in a different venue. She has one chance and then I act. No more evasions.'

'Good luck w that.'

I growled quietly at his response; hopefully I wouldn't have to use Hunter's suggestions at all. Hopefully Sookie would be willing to talk this time and be done with her pattern of running away. I wouldn't tolerate it any more and Hunter was still upset with her from when she'd locked him in the safe room and did everything she could to throw her life away to protect him. It was the fact that she did this all against his will that upset him so much. She had known that he'd wanted to fight by her side and had denied him the chance by making the choice for him.

Actually, I understood her choice. I would have done the same thing to Pam, and had basically done so when I went to Hana alone and tried to send her back to Louisiana. The only difference was that Pam had found a loophole to allow her to come to Hana to help me, and Hunter couldn't find a way out of the safe room to help Sookie.

I chuckled as I thought of Hunter admitting that in his rage and anxiety, he had accessed the fuse box trying to find a way to trigger the door to open and instead, had knocked out all the power to the lights. He had come creeping out of the room at 2:00 in the morning, shielding his eyes from the sliver of moonlight. Luckily for him and his companions, the power to the refrigerator and other essential items was maintained. I had come to see that this type of rash behavior was a bit of a trademark for him and in many ways he reminded me of my Pamela. Sookie and I had both certainly had our hands full raising our 'children'.

Thankfully he took his safety seriously and so he had been out of my hair more or less for the last year, except for his frequent texting to myself and Pam. Pam thought he was a riot and had Miriam working on a men's line of clothing to fit his build. I enjoyed watching Miriam pull her hair trying to work with a client she had never seen before and who appeared to be going through a growth spurt. She had become lazy working with vampires who never altered.

Hunter had served as a form of comic relief for me, but now I was ready for her return, hoping to welcome her into my arms so I could have her back and get the answers I so desperately needed. She had deserted me again, leaving only a note behind and the declaration of her love echoing in the empty room.

I had gone ballistic when I stopped looking for her long enough to read her note, and realized that she had once again made a choice that would take her from my side. My body was still warm from hers and I was covered in her scent, but she was gone.

Tonight, she should return. It had been a full year and I was ready for her. Pam was handling all of my meetings this evening and tomorrow night so that I could give her my full attention. On the third night from now, Freyda would be coming to prepare our joint interest propositions and plans that we would be presenting in one week at the conference being held in Memphis. I hoped that Sookie would agree to attend it with me, even if she simply stayed at my house rather than going to the events with me. I just wanted her near me. My need for her had grown even stronger in the twelve months since I had found her.

Her note rankled me still, her words frequently forming a loop in my head when I had a moment of down time, but one small part gave me hope. She had said she wanted to be stronger so she could stand by my side. By my side.

This is what she said she wanted, but would she be able to put up with it? My life was not easy and hers would be tricky to balance. She was prone to running when things became difficult…running physically and emotionally. This was the reason that, after long debate with Hunter, I had decided to prepare for the possibility that I might need to try the flippant suggestion he had given to me moments after being released from his imprisonment in the safe room.

I drummed my fingers on the arm of my chair…waiting…waiting. Instinctively I tried to feel for our bond, but of course it was not there. I took a deep breath to search for her by scent, but found nothing that led me to her.

I waited all night and the next night, but she did not return to me.

S~

I bowed deeply to my Britlingen instructors, Matak, Brynum, Topec, Clovache and Batanya. Each of them had been instrumental in providing me with historical and practical knowledge and skills. These skills, along with the personal restraint and control they helped me learn, would allow me to finally be safe and helpful at Eric's side. Brynum narrowed his eyes at me when he heard these thoughts from me. He did not believe that I had mastered discipline yet and he believed that my feelings for Eric were at the root of my poor emotional control.

I agreed with him, but instead of a weakness, I hoped my love for Eric would be a strength as Pele had suggested when she told me to embrace love in my life.

I had never lost my focus on my love. Through all the endless training sessions and meetings, I thought of Eric and Hunter all the time. I knew somehow that Hunter was fine, I could almost feel his existence within me, not like a bond, but a definitive knowledge of sorts. So I didn't worry about him. Instead, all of my available focus was on Eric and on our future together. The Britlingens had never accepted that I needed him in my life and warned me time and time again that sera fae could not live side by side with vampires. I disagreed. We would make our relationship work this time, I was sure of it.

I turned to bow and give my thanks to the people of Britlin who had gathered here to see me off. They were literally my family, and I would miss most of them, even Topec had grown on me with his gruff ways and soft heart.

The high-pitched squeal alerted me that my portal was opening. It would take me back to the exact spot I left from, so I just hoped that no one was using the bed Eric and I had shared during our few incredible hours together. I felt the portal encircle me and then I was standing in a construction site on the Hotel Hana property where the cottage had been located. It was still day here, so I looked around quickly to make sure no one could see me, wondering what had happened to the cottage.

I was alone, so I closed my eyes and directed all my focus and attention on Eric. I pictured every detail of his body, the frequency of his thoughts, his scent, the feel of his skin as it touched mine, his energy and the innate force he had that drew me to him. I felt it work; I located him and could feel his magical life force calling to me. I willed myself to be at his side and felt each cell tingle as I moved from one space to another to finally be one with him, to be his partner in this life.

As I materialized, I hit a soft wall and was pushed away from my intended target. I could smell and taste the magic. Eric had barred his room against the fae and me along with them.

I heard him yelling before I had even opened my eyes. I prepared to defend myself, but realized quickly that I was not the focus of his anger.

I was in a sitting room, from the look of the heavy furniture and deep splashes of color, I knew it was Eric's sitting room.

He was in his bedroom with the door slightly ajar, "I will not tolerate this from my wife any longer," he seethed.

A relaxed female voice answered him, "Eric darling, you know how I adore you…"

I stopped listening...oh my God, how could I have been stupid enough to forget that Eric was married? I had been so focused on our wonderful night together and my desire to get back to that moment that I had forgotten all the changes that had occurred in Eric's life. He was married, married to the Queen of Oklahoma and he was having an argument with her in their bedroom chamber. How had I forgotten about her?

I had to get out of here. I had to leave before they noticed me; I was so embarrassed and devastated. I had returned for my lover but had forgotten that he wasn't mine to keep after all. He was…hers.

The argument must have reached some conclusion because a tall slim woman I didn't know opened the bedroom door. She was looking back toward the bedroom but said as the door opened, "Oh yum, what is that delicious scent?" and her eyes found me, still frozen in place by my horror and lack of a back up plan. She was a true beauty with her striking green eyes, curly dark brown hair and delicate features. My heart twisted and my stomach sank. Leave it to Eric's wife to make me feel like an ugly cow. Of course I was the one intruding in her sitting room. I had to leave, but where would I go? My brain just wouldn't work.

Eric and Pam came crashing through the bedroom door, pushing the Queen aside, "Sookie," I thought I heard Eric growl, but he stood at his Queen's elbow, hands clenched, fangs out and glowered at me with intense anger that reminded me so much of the nights he hurt me that I felt myself pale and my knees almost buckled. I took a step back, quickly looking away from his hurtful glare. I had enough sense to inhibit the release of my pheromones, although the damage had already been done; the room was full of my scent already.

Pam smiled, but I was so upset I couldn't look directly at her either. Instead I focused on the Queen. I was sure that I would have to deal with her in the future so I forced my Britlingen training to kick in so I could control myself enough to show respect where it was due.

I stood tall and said directly to the Queen, "Please forgive me Your Majesty," and I nodded deeply to her. She raised one eyebrow at me in a gesture so like Eric's that I felt tears begin to pool in my eyes. I quickly included Eric in my nod, he was a King too, and then I turned away to hide my tears. But as I turned, one slid traitorously down my cheek. I quickly brushed it aside and took a step toward the door and focused all my attention on getting out of here. I just wanted to be home, to go home…

"Don't even think about it," Pam said firmly, appearing in front of me, blocking my access to the door, but I didn't need a door. I couldn't see her expression through the pooled tears in my eyes, but I heard her growl "No Sookie!" as I disappeared.

o-o-o

EPOV

"Damn it!" I yelled. She was gone again! I was furious with her for running away yet again without a word or hardly a glance for me. I had waited for her to return for an entire year and three days…waited, planned, craved, needed. I was going to find her, and when I did, I would make sure she wouldn't run away again. I couldn't wait to get my hands on her.

I was distracted from my fury by Pam's insolence, "Why did you just stand there glaring daggers at her? Why did you let her leave without saying anything? You looked like you wanted to kill her!" she demanded.

I growled at her, I had been too shocked and overtaken with emotions to react once I saw her. Her arrival in my private sitting room told me that she must have traveled by magic and I could feel the intensity of her magical potency cascading off her. She was magnificent.

I hadn't taken time to really look at her when I found her in Hawaii, I was seeing her through different eyes at first and then when I could see her correctly, she was weak and injured. But tonight…tonight she had been simply radiant, her skin and eyes glowed brightly. She was even more beautifully tanned than I had remembered, and her scent…my mouth watered at the thought of tasting her, it was better than ever and more compelling. She wouldn't be able to hide for long. My chest tightened as I thought of the dangers waiting for her.

I heard Freyda giggle, and turned on her in fury, "What could possibly be funny in this situation?" I asked Freyda through my clenched teeth.

She smiled up at me, "You, Eric. I'm laughing because you have certainly met your match. I can see why Pam likes her so much." She gave me her flirty little nod as she walked to the door, "Good luck finding her Eric and when you do, tell her I apologize for being in her husband's bedroom when she came to find you. She certainly didn't look like she was expecting to find me here." She shook her head as she walked out and closed the door behind her.

Pam turned to me, "Does she think you married Freyda after all?"

I ground my teeth together even tighter, realizing that there was no reason to believe otherwise and nodded, "If she didn't before, she believes so now." Why couldn't things ever be easy with Sookie?

"Do you want me to put out an alert with the Weres in the area to keep a lookout for someone fitting her description? They can contact you when she's spotted."

I nodded again, and Pam left to complete her task. I had two guesses as to where Sookie had teleported to…she could teleport…a fairy trait. Fuck. This would make things more difficult. I would explore both locations, but first, I had some last minute details to address.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent a text.

'She's back. Follow this link and enter your pass code. Timeline is still the same with activation TBD'.

'Shit. That sucks'.

'I will be making modifications to existing framework. Will send details as the work progresses'.

'Why?'

'She can teleport'.

'NFW!'

I only knew what that meant from Miriam. I ignored Hunter's annoying response and called my private contractors.

I had passed my tolerance limit with Sookie running from me. I was putting my foot down. We would have our talk even if she hated me for it.

0-0-0-0

A/N: Okay, so I know that there may be a collective 'Huh?' going on out there. Let me explain.

I had this all planned out differently when I set the plot to this story. My plans hit the skids when the last few chapters took on lives of their own. I had no clue how badly I would want to stop the story at the last chapter for Eric's benefit, but Sookie just wasn't ready. She will be soon (with help from Eric and the Britlingens), but she's not now. Plus there is much more to explain and explore.

My outline and rough draft for this chapter went into the shredder when I wouldn't stand seeing Eric in pain anymore. I also decided to delay providing you all with details about Eric's reaction, Hunter's time in the safe room and Sookie's year in Britlin. I'll be dolling these pieces out bit by bit so you can create the big picture as you read. My objective in doing this was to get these two back together as soon as I could. So if you're confused and feel that there are missing pieces to the puzzle, you are right where I want you to be. Sookie will be explaining the whole 'sera fae' thing in a few chapters.

Thanks for hanging in there with me and for your reviews and alerts.

I will be posting the next chapter soon. I cut this chapter in half to get it to you quickly and because I couldn't find a better place to end it.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: Thanks everyone for your feedback, alerts and favorites.**

**There's a lot of concern from my wonderful reviewers that Eric should have taken the time to tell Sookie that he's not married to Oklahoma. So let me take one minute to clarify a few things. I know it seems like a lot has happened and that a lot of time has passed, allowing much to be said between these two, but really the time they've had together has been very brief. Eric and Sookie had only an hour or two together in Hana after he figured out who she was (not counting the time that she was asleep) and has Eric only said 20 words to Sookie and she only said 4 to him. So there was no time for him to tell her he wasn't married.  
>I deliberately kept them quiet because I believe that silent actions are much more powerful than words when deep emotions are being expressed. So blurting out that he hadn't married Oklahoma wouldn't have been appropriate at the time, plus it was non-issue to Eric at that point so it didn't even cross his mind. Who would have thought that Sookie wouldn't have followed vampire politics when she left? Not Eric, that's for sure. Plus he totally choked when she showed up in his room and she was only there for a few seconds anyway so there wasn't time.<br>They will talk soon…hang in there!**

0-0-0-0

Chapter 26

Home

S~

I felt the tingle through my body as I moved locations, thinking only that I desperately wanted to be home. I opened my eyes and was shocked to find that I wasn't looking at a dark hardwood floor, but at familiar worn linoleum. I was not at my home in Hana, but back in my childhood home in Bon Temps.

"Holy Mary Mother of God," I heard a familiar voice speak from the corner of the kitchen behind me.

I flipped around and saw Michelle, an older version of the woman I had known, but Michelle just the same. She was standing at the sink with a sponge and a pan in her hands, a large grouping of bubbles dripped off the sponge and landed on the floor with a wet plop.

We stared at each other for a long moment before she squared her shoulders and said, "Can I help you?"

I realized that I still had tears running down my face from my broken heart, so I tried to pull myself together enough to answer her. But before I could, Jason's voice called out from the living room, "Chelle, you say somethin'?" My mouth dropped open, this certainly was a night for surprises because a few seconds later, my brother sauntered through the door.

I couldn't breathe. Jason, my brother was now a handsome man in his 40s. He had fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and a sprinkling of grey shining in his blond hair, but those changes just served to make him even more handsome than before.

His eyes widened and his face paled when he saw me. He took a breath in through his nose, testing my scent and shook his head, "Who's this Michelle, a friend of yours?"

I noted that he was slowly walking toward the closet where I had kept my rifle, so I raised my hands to show him that I was not a danger to them.

How would I explain this to him? In my imagination I always had Eric by my side to help me ease the shock when I had first contact with Jason and my other lost friends. Now it would just be me, no buffer, no support…just me. I took a deep breath, nothing was holding me back anymore. I was done with hiding, I could tell him who I was now; but how?

He kept walking until he was standing by the closet door, but he didn't make a move to reach for the rifle. Instead, he looked at me expectantly, "Are you one of them fairies?" Jason demanded. "That Dermot guy looked just like me, and you look like Sookie…"

I took the easier way again, too chicken to search for the right words, and I sent him memories from our childhood that only we would know…our last Christmas with our parents...fishing with Grandpa...Gran telling us that our parent's would not be coming back...sleepovers with Hadley.

He took two steps back, his face paling dramatically, "No fuckin' way…Sook?" he whispered my name.

I nodded my head, guilt spreading through my chest, and then I was stunned to find myself suddenly being embraced by a wonderfully familiar body. O was so nit expecting this response, I could hardly force myself to blink my surprise was so great. I was holding my brother, Jason, whom I thought I would never see again.

He pulled back from me and took me by my shoulders and shook me lightly. "Sookie? How is this possible? You…you died so long ago."

Finally I spoke, "I'm sorry Jason, I'm so very sorry."

"What happened to you? You look different, smell so…strange." He sniffed at me again and an uncomfortable expression crossed his face as though he wanted to like the scent, but found it disturbing that it was coming from his sister.

"It's a long story Jason. Just know that I didn't want to leave…to leave you and everyone else, but I had to, there was no other way for me."

Jason was getting angry. This, I had expected. That's why the hug surprised me so much. This was the way he handled things he didn't understand or that made him feel too much…anger.

Michelle recognized the signs too and intervened, "Sookie, it's so good to see you again." She pulled me into a hug even though I knew she wasn't the hugging sort, and in so doing, broke the intensity of Jason's stare. "Come on you guys let's go sit in the living room, I'm sure the kids are all asleep, so talking won't bother them." Translation, 'Jason don't yell at your sister, or you'll wake the kids'.

I turned to her, more tears forming in my eyes, "Kids?"

She gave me a wide smile as we sat on a couch I didn't recognize, in a room I had seen in my dreams many times over the last 16 years. Jason sat stiffly in Gran's favorite chair, I was so relieved that he had kept it. I could almost see her sitting in the room with us. "Yeah, we have three. Corbett is the oldest, he's fifteen, Finn's thirteen and our youngest, Carrie Grace is nine." Michelle gave Jason a nervous look as she mentioned Carrie Grace.

Three kids, Jason has three children, and I had missed being an Aunt to all of them. I glanced around the room and saw that many of my favorite family pictures had been replaced by new photos of a two brown haired boys and a little blond girl. I was so sad when faced directly with the enormity of what I had lost that I could barely move, but I forced my lips to say, "You are very blessed." I wondered if Jason would let me meet them.

"And what about you Sookie? Do you have any kids?" Jason asked snidely from his chair where he was slouched, slowly working off his confusion and anger.

"No," I answered quietly, trying to leave it at that. I wouldn't be involving Hunter in this discussion.

"What have you been up to then? Where have you been? Why did you leave?" Jason demanded.

"Jason, I wish I could, but I can't talk about why I left," I had to figure out what the situation was here with the vampires and the fairies before I gave too much information to a notoriously talkative person.

Jason rolled his eyes at me and I found myself getting irritated with him. I knew his anger was justified, but I had simply faced too much to put up with more from anyone right now. Somehow I found it much easier to get angry with him than anyone else...one of the benefits of family I guess.

"You know what Jason? You can just take your righteous indignation and shove it. For someone who had his life altered by the change to being a were, you're pretty intolerant of others who faced similar challenges. None of this was my fault and believe it or not I didn't leave my whole life behind just to hurt you," I spat at him. I wasn't being fair to him, he was just in shock, but my whole body was aching with sadness and more than a little jealousy at seeing my brother living my dream life. I knew I shouldn't be jealous, but there you have it…I was.

I stood up to leave, but Michelle grabbed my hand, "Please Sookie, please stay, we need to catch up with you." I read more into her statement than what she said, but kept my shields up, I didn't want to hear Jason's thoughts. "You can stay here, the couch is available, I'm sure you're tired and hungry."

Tired. I gave a bitter little laugh as I walked to the window and pulled aside the unfamiliar curtains. It was dark outside. Dark. I hadn't seen the night in a year. It was so…peaceful. Britlin's endless days had worn on me, so the dark night was a welcome sight.

I sighed quietly, "Would you mind if I took a walk, I'll be back in a little while." I looked up at the old clock on the mantle and noted that it was almost 10:00 PM. "What day is it?" I asked, earning a strange look from both Jason and Michelle.

"It's Wednesday," Michelle answered, and when I kept looking at her in request for more information she said, Wednesday September 20th…2022."

Okay that made sense, we had returned from Oakland on September 13th of 2021, that was the last date I was aware of since they don't use our calendar in Britlin.

"Sook, you okay?" Jason asked, looking concerned.

"Sure," I said, forcing a smile, but felt it fade quickly, I didn't have the heart to maintain the facade. "I've just been…out of it for a while."

I let myself out the door, shutting it quietly behind me, and walked onto the familiar porch. Less had been changed out here than in the house. They had replaced the porch swing and refinished the wood of the porch itself some years ago, but otherwise it was the same. I ran my hand over the banister and memories of a life long past flooded my mind...finding Eric cursed and running on the side of the road...Mr. Cataliades and Diantha burning Glad's body...my battle with Sandra Pelt with Sam and Jannalynn...Eric having my driveway repaved...running into a house full of angry weres...fleeing from murderers and kidnappers...Eric sitting on the porch swing.

I couldn't find harmony between the discordant thoughts of so much horror, fear and pain surrounded by a place that held such love and sense of security from my Gran. How had I continued to fight to live here after all that had happened? I didn't understand that person anymore. Why hadn't I taken better care of myself, taken my future into my own hands rather than sitting by and allowing all those horrible things to happen to me?

Of course I didn't miss that my only good memories from the last few years at this house included Eric. I shook off my dark thoughts and my heart took me immediately in the direction of the cemetery, I had to see Gran's grave, to be close to her. She was the gravity that had held me here for so long, even after she was gone.

My feet made their way flawlessly over the familiar ground and tension that I hadn't even known I was carrying around with me ran out of my body and my heart when I saw her grave. I felt my lips curve up into a true smile for the first time since returning as I sat down, pressed my forehead against her stone, placed my hands to the ground and closed my eyes, searching for some comfort from her resting place and from the land around it.

My smile faded after a few minutes. I was disturbed to find that I couldn't draw as much energy from the land here as I had been able to in Hana and Britlin. I knew immediately that it was because of the different geological history in this area. Both the Hawaiian Islands and Britlin had been created by volcanoes, but Louisiana was mainly runoff mud from northern states. I would find some familiar rocks, some feldspar and iron, but much less than I had before. This worried me since I used that power to heal and replenish my energy, and feldspar was the material the Britlingens had taught me to manipulate into armor like Topec and the other males wore. If the land didn't have enough feldspar in it, I couldn't use it to create the armor. There was no doubt, I would definitely be weaker here.

I would have to take better care of myself, try to get some sleep and make sure to eat well. I had entered a potential war zone where I wasn't sure who the enemy was, but they would all know I was something different and powerful and thus, a good target. Plus I was alone now. I had planned on being a team with Eric, so now I would have to seriously restructure my plans. I could do it, I had no doubt about that, but I had wanted and hoped to have Eric by my side...for many reasons.

Maybe after a little time, he would forgive me for leaving and give me another chance. He had shown me such love in Hana right before I had to leave him. Did he love me still? That would be horrible since we couldn't be together. Well, he couldn't have a relationship with me in public. I had opened my mind about various types of relationships, maybe I could accept being…oh who was I kidding? My one night stands in Hawaii were out of necessity for secrecy and protection of my heart. I had needed the brief companionship and physical intimacy and that was the only way I could afford to give it to myself. But I could never accept doing that with Eric, he already had my heart and it would kill me to pretend that I didn't care for him that way. No, a professional relationship was all I could hope for at this point since he couldn't have a steady lover when he was already married to the Queen. I could see us working together in time. He was fair and I trusted him as much as I trusted anyone in the supernatural world, which really wasn't all that much.

I had learned the hard way not to trust others with my and Hunter's safety. My blind trust in him had almost gotten me swept up by another vampire when he was planning on leaving me for Oklahoma. I squeezed my eyes tightly closed, trying to block from my mind the old feelings of almost betrayal caused by his neglecting to inform me of the impending danger. No, I wasn't ready to talk to him about developing a professional relationship just yet. God, I hated that this place was dredging up old feelings I would rather not explore. I had left behind these ugly experiences years and years ago. I preferred to focus on the love Eric and I had shared rather than on the dark patches of our relationship. I needed to get over my shattered heart first to get my feet firmly on the ground and then I had to figure out how I felt and what I wanted before I saw him again.

I jumped a little when I heard feet closing in on me. I reached out mentally to see who it was...Jason was coming to talk. He was calm and now concerned about me. That was the way it always worked with him, anger first and then he would think things through. He didn't often work up to concern, but maybe being a father had brought out some of his more paternal instincts. It certainly wouldn't be a bad thing if that had happened.

He sat down next to me on the ground. "I come here sometimes when I miss y'all." He tilted his head to the left to identify another gravestone…mine. It stood only a few feet from Gran's plot and fresh flowers rested by the stone.

I hung my head again and Jason put his hand on my shoulder. "'S'ok, Sook, don't let it upset you. You're back, that's what matters," he said quietly

I looked up at him, "I've missed you every day Jason. It was…so hard to be away from here."

"You're here now Sook, I have a sister again. That's pretty cool. The kids are gonna freak," he gave me his trademark grin and I knew we were going to be alright.

"Thank you Jason," I said.

He picked up a piece of moist tree bark and began to pick it apart, rubbing his fingers together on the small pieces until dust cascaded from his fingertips. "Can you tell me what happened? Why you left? Where you've been? Why you're so different? Anything?" he asked, grasping for some answers.

I sifted through what I could tell him, everything I could say might be used to hurt him or find Hunter or myself. I shook my head, but took his hand in mine and gave him my thoughts, I was so used to hiding the truth from everyone that I had to keep telling myself that I wasn't hiding anymore. I chose to start with showing him what I could do with out telling him what I was exactly, or who I had been with since I left home.

I gave him the grief I felt when I left, the rush of power surging through my body, the joy of shifting from form to form, and the terror of not being able to control my powers, including an abbreviated version of the incident in Oakland.

"Holy shit Sookie, what are you?" he asked curiously, his voice was void of the condemnation I had feared.

I shrugged; that he didn't need to know. "What I was meant to be," I answered quietly.

He looked at me for a long time. "Will that happen to me someday?" and then his eyes got bigger, "Or the kids?"

Concern crept its way back into my chest, and I answered him carefully. "Even if you all carried the gene," which they all did, "it takes certain triggers to set it off, it's very rare."

He was frowning, "Carrie Grace…she's like you Sook," he said tapping his temple.

I gasped, "Oh Jason, I'm so sorry I wasn't here to support her and to help you figure it all out." I had been safeguarding Hunter, and for the past nine years there was another child who needed my protection and guidance. I just couldn't win.

"She's actually doing really well. We knew what was going on much better than Mom and Dad did, so we were able to help her out a lot. She's also been spending some time with this vamp named 'Bubba', he's real nice, he says he likes her 'cause she's so much like you.

I groaned, nine years old and she was already in the world of vampires, "Do you think that's smart Jason, having her involved with vampires already? Is she safe?"

He gave a short laugh, "As far as I remember, it wasn't the vampires who hurt you Sookie, they were always tryin' to keep you safe. I think he's the lesser of many evils. Plus she feels better when he's here. He promised not to talk to anyone about her, and I believe him 'cause I'm pretty sure that he woulda done anything for you."

I nodded, Bubba was definitely devoted to me in an odd way, but if he knew, others had to know too.

That thought had me wondering about the other people I had left behind. "How about everyone else Jason? How's Sam? Hoyt, Tara, JB?" I cringed, waiting for bad news.

"Damn Sookie, Sam's doing great! He got married about five years after you…left. He has two kids now and he's real busy with the bars. Tara and JB had the twins and then they split up a while later. JB married some doctor he met a few years before and Tara's dating a new lawyer in town, the kids are good friends with Corbett. Hoyt's doing just fine, he's over here all the time with Holly. They got married a few months after you left and have Holly's son and one girl together who appears to be taking after her mother, if you know what I mean."

I smiled; she must be a witch. "Have you ever heard anything from Amelia?"

"Yeah, she comes up for a week each summer to help us with Carrie Grace. She's married to some guy down in New Orleans and is a wickedly powerful witch now. Eric hires her sometimes." Jason frowned, "Do you wanna know about him and Pam?"

"I'm not ready for details yet, just tell me if they're okay, alright." I didn't want to end up crying again, I was finally starting to feel better.

"They seem fine, they're both based in New Orleans, but Eric comes up here to the bar around Halloween every year and then visits the house and your grave on the anniversary of your…you know, each year. Come to think of it, he didn't come last year, that's strange. Does he know you're alive?"

I nodded, "He found me last September," I admitted.

"Why'd it take you so long to come here then?" Jason asked, miffed again.

"Do you remember the memories I shared with you?" he nodded, "I had to get some help to learn how to control myself better before it was safe for me to be here." I swallowed and gathered the courage to tell him the truth, "Plus Jason, I'm in more danger now than I ever was before." The Britlingens had prepared me as well as they could for defending myself against the fairies, but they were furious that I had demanded on returning to Louisiana rather than somewhere safer like Hawaii or Washington State.

"What? With all that you can do? You can protect yourself just fine Sook, I saw it," he demanded.

I nodded, "What I am now Jason, is very rare, partly because I have powerful enemies, who hate me for simply being what I am. But don't worry about me. You're right, I can protect myself and I will if I need to, and although I hate using my powers in that way...I will," I affirmed.

He smiled at my determination, "I'll fight with you little sis," and he pulled me into a headlock and gave me a nuggie on the top of my head. I screeched in childish delight as we tumbled into a heap, wrestling like we were kids. I laughed like I hadn't in years.

o-o

I spent the night on the couch, trying, and failing to sleep. It was incredibly annoying that after a year of working on staying awake at the insistence of the never-tiring Britlingens and the always-bright sky, I couldn't sleep now. So I was still awake at dawn when I felt a mind trying to dig into mine. Carrie Grace was awake.

"Bubba?" I heard from her bedroom, my childhood bedroom. '_What's he doing here? The sun is up! He'll get hurt!'_

She came running out of the room and screeched to a halt, sliding on the hardwood floors in her fluffy pink socks. I couldn't help but smile at this sweet girl who was so protective of her vampire friend. She stood there staring at me, trying to figure out what I was while I took her in. She did look like me when I was a kid, messy blond hair, blue eyes, tanned skin from playing outside. But she had a mixture of Jason and Michelle's features which made her super cute. She walked toward me, so brave, and placed her hand on mine and sighed in relief. Oh man did I understand her reaction. I kept my shields locked tight to give her the peace we both longed for so badly. I waited until she was ready to talk; she was just enjoying the quiet.

"But you're not a vampire…are you? Why can't I…" she bit her lip and ducked her head. She didn't want to reveal her ability. I was relieved to hear that she thought of it as an ability rather than a disability the way I had as a child and as an adult. She was in a much better place than Hunter or I had been at this age. Thank you Bubba.

Jason walked in right then, hair messy like his daughter, wearing his pajama bottoms and a tight red shirt with the letters BT on it in black, showing his Bon Temps football pride had never faded. "Morning Sook, I see you've met Carrie Grace," he said with a yawn he didn't bother to cover so I got a good look at his tonsils.

Carrie Grace's head snapped to look from her father to me and back again, before taking a step away from me and toward her father. She was scared, thinking that I might be a ghost or something scarier.

I shook my head, "We haven't had a formal introduction yet. Carrie Grace, I'm Sookie Stackhouse, your Aunt and your father's sister."

She'd heard a lot about me of course since we were so similar, but had been told I was gone forever.

"It's okay," I told her, "I didn't die, I just had to go away for a while."

She looked at her dad and Jason nodded, "That's Aunt Sookie hun, for real."

Her eyes were wide and she began to breathe faster, "Can you…do you…are you like me?" she asked excitedly.

I nodded, "I can and do read minds when I want to and I am like you in a few ways, but very different in others." I didn't want her to see my other abilities and get scared or to expect to develop them when she got older. Hopefully, she could live a more normal life than I had managed.

She clapped her hands in joy and sat on the couch next to me, looking at me as though I held all the answers in the world. I laughed at her exuberance, thinking about how happy Hunter was to learn how to control his telepathy.

"I've told her how you had learned to close your mind to thoughts when you wanted to, but she hasn't learned how to do that yet," Jason explained unnecessarily; I understood perfectly. I did wonder how he learned about my shields, I certainly hadn't spent much time talking with him about my telepathy. He had never wanted to know anything about it, even after he became a bitten were-panther. Thank goodness he seemed to have a different attitude with is daughter than he'd had with me, she needed his support desperately.

"I'd be very happy to teach you how to do it," I said to Carrie Grace and she smiled up at me and grabbed my hand again.

"Why can't I hear you?" she asked.

"Because I don't want you to hear me," I said, "would you like to?" I offered.

She thought about that for a little while and then she nodded, "Think about what daddy was like when he was little."

I chuckled and looked at Jason, "Hmmmmm, what would embarrass Daddy the most…" I said, making an evil face. "Ahhhh…"

I thought about the day when Jason was about eight and we were visiting Gran and Grandpa just before my parents had died. Jason had been working outside with Grandpa and had tripped on one of the sawhorses and knocked a bucket of varnish all over himself. Grandpa made him strip down to his underwear before sending him into the house to shower. Jason came running through the back door and had frozen like a deer in headlights when he found the living room full of four of Gran's friends and two of their daughters, and me of course. He was a sight to see, streaking through the room, covered in varnish with his tighty whities gleaming brightly on his behind.

Carrie Grace and I both burst out laughing at the memory.

"Daddy you looked just like Corbett, but blond and naked!" she giggled so hard she got the hiccups.

He looked at me questioningly, "Varnish," I told him and he narrowed his eyes at me, "I'll get you back for that some day, ya know." I just wiggled my eyebrows and gave him the 'bring it on' gesture with my hand. It felt so good to relax again.

Our laughing had woken the boys and Michelle, so we completed another round of introductions and then Michelle and I got busy preparing breakfast while Jason and the kids played some game on the TV.

During breakfast Jason paused in shoveling down his food and asked me, "So how long are you stickin' around?"

I sighed internally, I wanted to say here permanently, but…'_Jason, I can't stay here beyond today, it's not safe for you to have me around here too much_,' I told him silently. "I'll be leaving tonight, but I can visit sometimes…when things look quiet." I didn't want to mention the dangers in front of the kids.

Jason jumped a little when I sent him my thoughts, but kept his mouth closed. He nodded and immediately stood up, walked across the room and made a call on the new cordless phone in the kitchen. "Alcede. Jason. Hey I'm taking the day off, family stuff.

He looked at me and I shook my head adamantly, I wasn't ready for the word of my return to be passed this way. Alcide. I hadn't thought about him in so long. I hoped he was doing well.

Jason finished up his conversation and returned to the table.

"You work for Alcide now?" I questioned.

"Yeah, we got to know each other better after you…you know. We worked together on a few small jobs and then he hired me. I'm his site manager for whatever project is going on nearby. It's a pretty sweet deal."

I smiled, grateful that my friends had taken care of my family; I would have to thank Alcide personally. I knew he'd offered Jason the job for my sake, although I was sure, or at least I hoped that Jason was capable at what he did.

Michelle called the school and her boss, and she and the kids took the day off as well. I was touched that they would take the time to be with me. Family. I had missed them so much even though I had made my own family in Hana.

We spent a fun, relaxed day, catching up and getting to know one another. I worked for a few hours with Carrie Grace, sitting in the autumn sun, teaching her about her shields. I found my ability to share my thoughts to be extremely helpful in showing her what I did. She was able to maintain her shields for about fifteen minutes by the end of the day and was incredibly excited.

I took half an hour to pop back to Hana to grab a backpack which I filled with my phone, some clothes and toiletries. I then made reservations for a week at three different hotels around the country, focusing on Hawaii and areas around, but not too close to Mount. St. Helens, knowing that I would be stronger for being in those areas and more protected from other fairies. I didn't trust our homes and apartments after the debacle in Oakland when I wasn't able to rescind my invitation.

While I was there, I called Macey to touch base, and was relieved to find that everything was well with them. Then I called Hunter.

"You're back!" he greeted me exuberantly.

"Yes, I just got back. Are you okay?" I asked, knowing he was fine by the sound of his voice.

"I'm better than okay, why didn't you tell me how freaking cool all this stuff is? I love it!" he said joyfully.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"I can shift, heal, glamour and make fire just like you! It's so cool. I ran into a vamp who wanted a bite and wouldn't take no for an answer and I dusted him in a second with just a little burst of fire. I freaking love this!"

I didn't know whether to be relieved or worried that Hunter was out of control. "Hunter, you have to use your powers carefully, you can hurt people so easily and not all vampires are bad. You'll also draw fairies to you when you use your powers, they can sense it. Have the Britlingens come to you yet?"

"Nah, I guess I'm not ready yet. I had to defend myself, that vamp got this glassy look in his eyes and wouldn't back off," he said defensively.

"I get it Hunter and I'm more relieved than you can know that you're okay," and I was.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm in Louisiana. The Britlingens told me it was okay for me to go public so long as I was careful, so I'm with my brother's family for a few more hours and then I'm going to be staying around the country at night.

"What, how? Oh man can you pop in and out like the fairies?" Hunter asked sounding totally cheated.

"Yes, and I'll try and teach you, but you may need to go to Britlin to learn."

"I bet you can teach me and soon, I'm coming to New Orleans!" he said excitedly.

"What? No Hunter it's not safe," I scolded.

"I have plans with Peter and some other friends. It's the last time we can get together before he starts med school and I'm not missing it. I'm flying in the day after tomorrow, I'll call you when I get into town."

"Do you need any help or money?"

"Nope, I'm perfect, really."

I felt more tension roll off my shoulders, and my chest loosened a tiny bit. He was still in terrible danger, maybe more than before, but he had proven that he could protect himself against one problem at a time. I had to keep my promise to let him go his own way. I could help him some, but I couldn't protect him constantly like I did before.

The kids went wild when I teleported back into the living room and Finn created a game game of tag in which I wasn't allowed to move except for teleporting place to place. I got tired after a dozen or so jumps, and noticed that each time, I was slower in leaving my current location. I had to keep this in mind for future reference. I definitely wasn't as strong here. I texted Hunter before dinner to warn him about the difference in our strength on this land compared to when we were on Maui, he needed to be prepared for that.

I helped Michelle with dinner, happy to share such a normal process with someone I enjoyed. She was so good for my brother, her total honesty attitude kept this unique family in check and they were flourishing.

After dinner, I said my goodbyes, put on my backpack and teleported to one of the two hotels I had contacted in Washington State. Clovache had taught me to use the maps on my phone to visualize the location I would be teleporting to when I didn't have a clear idea of the area. She loved the 'little brains' as she called them and made sure to have one on her at all times. I timed my departure so that I would arrive at the hotel before sunset. I went straight to my room after checking in and then did the same at each of the other hotels I had booked. This way, I would be able to jump right into the room and bypass the front desk if I needed to. I returned to the original hotel, and had just ordered room service when my phone beeped. I wasn't sure what to think when I read the text from Jason.

'Eric was just here looking for you.'

I was sad, first and foremost, but there was a touch of fear and anger floating around in my mind that kept my adrenaline up enough so that I didn't fall apart. Plus my training had given me enough 'intestinal fortitude,' as Matak liked to call 'internal toughness' to hold my head high in this clusterfuck that was my life. What the hell did he want from me anyway? He had told me himself that if he married Oklahoma, he could not be with me. So why was he bothering me now?

I settled in for the night, trying to will myself to sleep, but nothing helped. Finally I gave up, changed into some workout clothes and teleported myself to the meditation building on our property in Hana. I spent the night exercising and recouping my energy.

I spent the next two days making short visits to Jason and his family and spending the rest of the daylight hours soaking up the sun and pulling energy from the volcanic mountains of the northwest. It was relaxing, and I enjoyed the time I had with my family, but I was sad and lonely. I felt as though I was living a half-life. I was not yet ready to start the life I was supposed to lead, mainly because I wasn't able to accept that I would never have the future I wanted with the man I loved and could never really have…at least not for the next 84 years.

So I was excited to get the call from Hunter telling me that he was in New Orleans. He and his friends were going to a small bar in the city know for its music and dancing and he wanted me to come join them. I couldn't resist, knowing I could slip away with Hunter if the need arose. I went shopping and found a few outfits perfect for the club scene in New Orleans. I chose a rich blue tank dress with light blue flowers on the bottom and on the straps. It had a scoop neckline front and back and an empire waist. The dress was flowy and fell to a few inches above my knees. Combined with my ballerina shoes, it was fun enough to fit in at a club, but reserved enough that I wouldn't feel too exposed. I wasn't in the mood for putting myself on display tonight.

I made sure I had my weapons stashed carefully in my purse, but I had others, including my hair sticks which were forged of iron and silver and when connected made a very nice little dagger. My bracelet was made of thin but strong chains of silver and iron and my earrings and rings were all Britlingin approved weapons in their own right. Of course, the one thing I was missing was my pendant. I had mourned its loss for a while, but had adapted to its absence from my chest. I added a silver and iron chain necklace and I was ready to go, looking just like the twenty something girl I was supposed to be, out for a fun evening with my cousin.

I felt for Hunter and teleported a few feet away from him and spent a minute just watching him from afar. It was so amazing to see him again and I had always loved watching him when he didn't know I could see him. I wasn't a stalker, just a proud mom/aunt/cousin. When I wasn't around, he took on another persona, one that was more jovial and relaxed. I sighed when I thought of the weight I had surely added to his life. Well, at least he had a life, that's what really mattered in the end.

He must have sensed me because he turned around, strode to me with three big steps and picked me up in a huge hug, and I mean huge. Hunter had developed into a full-grown and well-muscled man in just one year and he looked as though he had aged about four or five years in that time.

"Look at you," he said brotherly, "you look great," he said with a smile.

"Thanks, and you're one to talk, it seems like you were six years old yesterday," I returned with a grin, playing my part.

Hunter turned to his friends, all of whom were basic humans. What a relief, no supes to deal with tonight. '_Should I call you Sookie or Jeanne here?'_ Hunter asked me.

Well I guess I should bite the bullet and join life once more, '_Sookie is fine,'_ I answered.

"Sookie, these are my friends from college, Logan, Adam and Kevin," he said gesturing to each friend in turn. "Guys this is my cousin, Sookie. She's going to be hanging out with us. Peter couldn't make it tonight, I'll catch up with him later," he told me. I was sorry for him, I knew he wanted time with Peter and I hoped he could get some soon.

His friends all grinned and gave me interesting appraisals, I was glad my shields were locked up tight, I didn't want to know what was behind the friendly leers of these children. Nonetheless, I was grateful to be welcomed eagerly by the crew as we made our way into the bar.

It was wonderful. Live music and lots of dancing. I had a blast, and for the first time in a year, I was able to focus on something other than survival and Eric. Hunter and I took breaks from dancing to catch up now and then, but he was definitely a horny twenty-two year old, and the women loved him. Honestly I had my fair share of young men trying to get my attention, so I tried to enjoy the feeling of being social and desirable. My self-esteem had taken quite a hit when I realized that Eric had a beautiful wife, so I was trying to find a way to move on and let him go. It worked for a few minutes at a time, but not for long.

Around one o'clock in the morning, I saw a burly man watching me with a little too much interest; I even thought he might have been taking a video of me dancing with Hunter and his friends. I walked directly over to him and forced my will on him, "Why are you watching me?" I demanded of him.

He blinked a few times and then answered, "The vampire king, Northman wants to be told when someone answering your description is seen."

Why the hell was he so interested? If he hadn't been staring at me with such a livid expression, I would think he wanted to find me to have our talk. I was sure he was still curious about what had happened and I would eventually tell him everything. He deserved it, but right now it would hurt too much. I needed more time.

I turned my back on the Were and grabbed Hunter's arm. "I'm getting out of here and you should come too. I think Eric's on his way, that Were over there just told him I was here."

"Eric?" Hunter asked, looking a little too interested, "Your husband Eric?"

I froze, when had I told Hunter about that? I brushed it off; I must have mentioned it at one point or another. I shook my head, if he had asked me this a few days ago, I would have said, 'Yes, my husband Eric.' I had come to develop a deeper respect for supernatural traditions, marriage by ceremonial dagger among them, but not anymore. "That was never real Hunter, just a power play, we weren't married, but yes, that Eric."

"Well, what does he want?" Hunter asked, "It couldn't hurt to have a conversation with him in this public place? He wouldn't do anything to you here."

No, Eric wouldn't do anything to me here or anywhere. I believed that he wouldn't hurt me, despite his anger, but I still couldn't face him yet, I wasn't brave enough.

"No, but we should still leave," I said stubbornly. Hunter knew when to give up trying to sway me, so he said a quick goodnight to his friends and we made our way out of the building and down to an alley through the busy streets. As I turned to grab Hunter's hands to safely take him with me, I saw Eric arrive at the bar and catch sight of us. I quickly stepped between him and Hunter, "Keep your face down, and think of your hotel so I can take us there," I whispered. I gripped his hands tightly and took him with me to his hotel. Eric had never seen Hunter's face before and I wasn't going to be the one to expose him.

o-o

Hunter and I practiced teleporting during the next two days without any success, and at night, he and his friends talked me into joining them out on the town again. I loved being out with them; it was such a carefree time, so they didn't have to try very hard to convince me. Unfortunately Eric's influence seemed to cover the entire town, so our evenings were cut shorter each night and I was getting irritated. I was going to have to suck it up and set up a meeting with him sooner rather than later.

"This guy really wants to talk to you," Hunter said with a smile as we noticed another Were reporting my location.

I sighed and then flipped around as I sensed a vampire mind right behind me. Pam stood inches from me with her hands on her hips, tapping her patent leather high-heeled shoe in irritation. I had to smile at the way she stuck out here, not because she was a vampire, but because of how she was dressed. Pale pink cardigans over matching tanks and white linen pants hardly fit into the dance club's dress scheme. She looked like an angry mom on the way home from a PTO meeting, and I had to laugh for a second.

"Pam, you look lovely, it's so nice to see you," I said gleefully. Maybe it was the two house drinks I had under my belt already that made me a little giddy, or the fact that it was Pam who was here rather than Eric as I had feared, but I really was happy to see her.

She continued to frown at me, "Sookie. You seem to be enjoying yourself," she said in a chastising way.

"Why shouldn't I?" I asked defensively.

"You, Sookie Stackhouse, are a selfish bitch. You have no idea what's going on, do you?" she looked from me to Hunter with way too much curiosity for my taste.

Hunter had been nudging me for an introduction, so I elbowed him and said, "Pam, I really don't care what's going on. This is my friend, Jonathan. Jonathan, this is Pam, Eric's right hand man so to speak."

Pam nodded at Hunter, he grinned back enthusiastically, "So Pam, you're a friend of Sookie's? It's a pleasure to meet you." I shot Hunter a disgusted look, he was pouring it on thick. He didn't realize how far out of his comfort zone he was with Pam.

Pam frowned at me, "I am," she said, referring to our friendship and I was touched at her overt statement of our relationship, but she continued, "not that she has acted like a friend recently."

It was my turn to frown, "Pam…" I began, but she cut in.

"Hunter, Sookie and I are going to take some time alone to catch up, we'll find you in a little while."

With that, she grasped my arm and towed me to a quieter corner where she scared a small group of revelers off of a couch and motioned for me to sit down next to her. I sighed, I was pretty sure I knew what was coming and I wasn't in the mood. But she was right, I hadn't been acting like a friend and I needed all the friends I could get these days, so I sat down like a good girl.

She stared at me silently, so I started the conversation with what I thought might be a safe topic. "You took down Victor...I hate to say it, but I wish I could have seen it for myself."

Pam gave me an approving nod, "And I wish you could have been there," Pam said to me, "to see the look on Victor's face. We had your service privately, by invitation only, to keep Victor, Felipe and the Fellowship from crashing, but we carefully circulated a rumor of the time and date of a 'public' funeral. We took care of many undesirable elements that night." She said with a vicious smile. "Victor came to your funeral expecting to lord over Eric and rub your death in his face, and instead, he was ended…very slowly. It was so much fun. We even let him live long enough for my sweet Miriam to have some time alone with him, as she was deserved."

I sat straight up, many questions were running through my mind. "So it's true then, Miriam's alive? She survived her cancer?" I asked, my voice reaching a higher pitch than usual.

"No Sookie, Miriam is not alive, she is vampire. I made her the very night you were killed a few minutes after Eric made his alliance with Oklahoma. I pledged myself to Oklahoma temporarily and left a message with Felipe telling him that I was no longer of his concern. It was a very good night for me…until just before dawn of course," she scowled at me.

And here we were...reality struck me flat on the forehead, forcing me to face the facts. The timeline had been tighter than I thought if Eric had agreed to marry Oklahoma the night I left town. Had I waited another day, I would have been unprotected. I shook my head at how lucky I had been with the timing of things. I needed to be grateful for the luck I had and try and forget both the anger these thought brought out in me and what I had hoped to have with Eric. I loved him even though I was angry with him. I was like a broken record trying to convince myself to let him go, but I hadn't managed to listen to myself yet.

"What did I say that upset you, my friend?" I must have been out of it for a while for her to mention my distraction.

I looked at her, she really was such a welcome sight; I had missed her very much.

I shook my head, "Nothing Pam, I'm just a little unstable these days, there's too much going on for me to process."

Pam narrowed her eyes at me, "You forget that I know you much better than anyone thinks. I spent a lot of time figuring you out Sookie Stackhouse or whatever name you're using right now. You are not being honest with me. Tell me exactly what I said that upset you. Please," she added with such distaste that I laughed out loud. What had I done without her in my life to make me realize how annoying I am?

"Fine Pam, you mentioned Oklahoma and I was reminded of how incredibly stupid I was to jump right back into his…their room, hoping to find him waiting for me with open arms," I groaned at the memory, "when he's married…he has a wife Pam. I knew that." I shook my head in frustration, "I just forgot for a little while…"

"Close your mouth Sookie Stackhouse and listen to me," Pam interrupted me, "Eric did not marry Freyda, he formed an alliance, a coalition with Oklahoma on the night you disappeared, but he did not agree to marry her. In fact, he did this so that he would not have to break off your marriage and leave you unprotected." She shook her head at me, and said something else, but I didn't hear it.

I felt the blood leave my face and the room began to swim. Suddenly a dainty but strong pair of hands was on my face. "Look at me Sookie."

I couldn't process what was happening. All I knew was that the very thing that had led me to take this path in my life had never actually happened. Eric had never married Oklahoma, and I had run, leaving everything and everyone I had ever known behind, except for Hunter. I gave up my life on the assumption that he was leaving me...us, unprotected and it was all a fallacy. I began to crumble.

"No, Sookie, stay with me. Don't run again," Pam demanded.

I could feel her cool hands on my cheeks and they helped me gain enough cohesion to think.

Stay…if I had stayed, Eric would have been made king and would probably have been able to protect us from vampires, but not from the fairies. Hunter would still have been at great risk. I would be 41 years old now, if I had survived all the dangers that always seemed to find me, and I wouldn't have ever accepted the pa.

Would that have been better? Would I have been able to live a quality life? Would Hunter have been safe and happy with a father who was scared of and disgusted by him? No. I hated to look back at my life before I left, at all the fear and pain my loved ones and I had faced on a daily basis. Everyone had been at risk because of me. No, I was better for having escaped, and so were they. This was the reality that I belonged in, the one that was best for both Hunter and I.

I blinked a few times and saw that Pam's blue eyes were inches away from mine, her cool hands still on my face.

"Thank you," we both breathed at the same time causing us to laugh briefly.

"Was that a panic attack?" she asked, "I've heard some humans speak of them," Pam said with a shrug as she sat back on the couch next to me again.

"More a realigning of my reality, I think," I said with a sigh. "Sorry for the drama…again," I grimaced.

"You have a lot to deal with right now," Pam said, "but from the look of you, my friend, you have plenty of time to deal with whatever you may face," she said with a smile. "It's good not to have to worry about you aging and perishing anymore."

"No, aging doesn't seem to be a problem anymore, just trying to figure out where I belong in this world and trying to stay alive, that's all."

"That's easy. You belong with Eric," Pam stated with confidence.

"He won't want me anymore Pam, I've messed up too many times," I argued.

"You're a fool Sookie Stackhouse. He hasn't given up on you. He still wants you. Have you not noticed the efforts he has taken to find you and keep you safe in the last few days?"

"Are you referring to how he and his guard dogs keep chasing me out of bars and away from my friends? Yes I certainly noticed. What does he want from me?" I asked in irritation.

"Must I repeat myself? He wants you, Sookie," she nodded to confirm her answer and folded her hands on her lap.

"You're wrong Pam, I saw the way he looked at me when I jumped into his residence, if looks could kill, I'd have been on the floor then and there. I saw nothing but hatred in his eyes, definitely not love. No, Pam he doesn't want me."

"He doesn't hate you Sookie, only what you've put him through. He had been expecting your return for two nights before you finally showed up. He waited for you patiently for a year and two nights, but your delay pushed him too far and he snapped the night you returned. I had just enlisted Freyda's help in calming him down when you burst upon the scene. Never forget what he is Sookie. He's a man first, yes, but he's a vampire and can only be pushed so far. Give him a break and a chance to convince you that he loves you," she encouraged me.

Everything she said made sense, but I was still afraid to allow myself to hope. I stared at her and knew without reading her thoughts that she was telling the truth. I gave her a pleading look and she tapped her toe, frustrated with me again. I closed my eyes and nodded my head so slightly that only a vampire would notice it. When I opened my eyes again, she was smiling and had her phone in her hand.

0-0-0-0

**A/N: The 'talk' will be happening soon and I know you've all been waiting for this. I'm putting out a general call for any questions you really want explained by our two favorite characters. I'm sure you have some I haven't thought of so far. I haven't written that chapter yet, (or probably, those chapters, more like it) so it's all relatively malleable. If your question(s) fits into where I want the story to go and what I want the characters to know right now, I'll have them address it.**

**I've never done anything interactive like this, but I think it should be lots of fun!**

**We're going on vacation next week, so I hope to get one more chapter out before I go, but you know how crazy things get before a trip. I'll give you one guess as to where we're going! ;D Hopefully I'll be able to do some research for the story.**


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: Finally, another update.  
>Thank you for being patient while I enjoyed a visit from my best friend from college and then went on a two-week trip to Hawaii with my husband and son. A word to the wise...don't go on a two-week trip with a three year old, and if you do, take lots of barf bags from the airplane, wrap every toy you bring and don't expect too much...you'll just set yourself up for disappointment. Don't get me wrong, we had fun and love Hawaii, it was just hard to enjoy it in the midst of his intense fussing. The last trip we took was when he was 6 months old and that was much easier.<br>Anyway, I'm trying to get this out to you all quickly to get the ball rolling again so if there are errors, blame the jet-lag. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and PM'd questions to be addressed during the 'talk', and especially to jrme5759 and Racecz5 for their kind PM requests to keep posting. All of your support really keeps me going when I run out of energy or creativity. Here goes...

Just as a reminder...CH owns these characters, I'm just taking a walk with them down a different path...

Chapter 27

'Turn the Tables'

S~

I sat patiently on the deep couch while Pam sent and received a few text messages with, I could only assume, Eric. The music pounded through the large, two-story room and vibrated every hard surface, including my very bones. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, in fact it felt good when the lower frequencies grabbed a hold of my ribcage and shook it to the sound of the beat. It made me feel more grounded at a time when I was scattered and nervous, almost like getting an inconsistent hug.

Finally Pam nodded briskly, placed her phone back into her pristine white and light pink purse and then looked at me with an unreadable expression.

"Well?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. What was happening? Was he going to come? Did he really still want me?

"Well what?" she asked in response, being deliberately obtuse.

I took a deep breath as I felt my anxiety threatening to build into anger. "You know very well, 'what'," I said as calmly as I could.

"Now we wait," she said as she clasped her fingers and placed her hands in her lap like the perfect southern belle.

I, however, had only managed to pretend to be a southern belle, thanks to my telepathy. I had never managed to be the perfect southern belle despite Gran's efforts, just asks anyone I grew up with in Bon Temps if they had known 'crazy Sookie Stackhouse'. I fought the sudden urge I had to get up and stalk away. I so wouldn't be putting up with any shit tonight, I simply didn't have the emotional strength to play games where Eric was concerned. "Pam, is he coming?" I asked quietly, knowing that she would hear me over the sounds of the blaring music.

"Yes. When he finishes his meetings. Tonight is an extremely busy night for us; I have just arranged coverage for a myriad of my own meetings to be here with you. We leave for the Amun Clan summit in Memphis this morning with Oklahoma's retinue so we can arrive at Eric's temporary residence there before sunrise." I raised my eyebrows and she continued, "We no longer stay at hotels for events such as this; we learned a few things from Rhodes," she said with a slight smile of thanks aimed at me as we both relived the traumatic events surrounding the attack by the Fellowship of the Sun at the only summit I had attended at the behest of the then Queen of Louisiana, Sophie Anne. "You know Sookie, I had almost forgotten how interesting you make things. Anyway, he's booked solid for the next three hours. He'll come after that."

That's right, Eric was Louisiana's king and so must be busy dealing with all the state's many problems. I couldn't expect him to jump the second I called; I wasn't that unreasonable. I reluctantly remembered how tense everyone had been before Rhodes and hoped that things were less stressful for the state now. "Are things better for Louisiana...since Eric took over and aligned with Oklahoma?" I asked her, still unsure what the alliance meant for him, or for me for that matter.

"Yes, but there are problems and threats to be dealt with on a regular basis. Life with Eric will never be quiet and peaceful Sookie, it's not the type of existence he will ever lead," she warned.

I nodded, I knew what I was getting myself into, and I wasn't worried about the political stability of the state for my well-being, but for Eric's. I would only be adding to his troubles by going public, but hopefully I could be of use to him as well. If we could present a strong enough united front, maybe others would be too intimidated to threaten us. I'd never liked the idea of throwing my weight or my powers around, but the Britlingins had been successful with emphasizing the importance of impression and decisive but controlled displays of power to keep the threats around us to a minimum. Simply the sight of a Britlingin was enough to keep a whole room full of vampires in check. I'd seen that at work myself in Rhodes and during my real world training missions with Clovache and Britanya in which I presented myself as a Britlingin. I found the respect and awe provided us by most supernaturals to be a surprisingly exhilarating experience, and one that could become addictive if I wasn't careful.

"Why don't I meet him at his residence or at the airfield to save him time? I could even meet him in Memphis tomorrow night, I don't have to travel with you, I can just meet him wherever he is at a set time. That would save him the trouble of coming out here to get me," I suggested.

"No. He wants to collect you himself and we are…busy tomorrow night. A type of busy that your presence would not help, Sookie," Pam interjected before I had a chance to offer my assistance. I squirmed, not used to letting others make plans and decisions for me these days. I started to feel a type of claustrophobia at the thought of others controlling and manipulating me the way they had before I left Louisiana so many years ago. I wouldn't allow that to happen again and those around me would simply have to accept that if they wanted to be a part of my life. I was not the same person they had known and I would disappear again if anyone tried to shoehorn me back into an image of a woman they wanted me to be. This is who I am, for better or worse, and nothing would change me unless I wanted it.

Pam leaned forward, sensing my discomfort and rising ire, "Trust him Sookie, he has reasons for everything he does. You never know who he is meeting with tonight or why he might want to keep your presence a secret, if that's what he's doing. He doesn't make knee-jerk decisions. Trust him," she demanded.

I took a deep breath to settle myself, sat back on the soft couch and looked at the clock on my phone; it was eleven. The club we were at tonight was one of New Orleans' 24-hour bars, which meant that they had a liquor license that allowed them to serve alcohol all day and night. The club wouldn't close, and the way Pam had settled back on her side of the couch made me certain that waiting patiently right here was exactly what her plan entailed.

The waitress came by and I ordered an iced tea. I certainly didn't need any more alcohol if I was going to be sitting here with Pam all night. "You mean an sweet tea?" she asked shortly. I paused for a second and then laughed softly. I'd had a hard time with the transition from sweet tea to iced tea in Hawaii, but now the thought of sweet tea made my tongue curl.

"Um, no. How about a 7up or sprite?" I asked. The waitress nodded curtly and turned to Pam who ordered three True Bloods. I looked at her quizzically; I'd never seen her order more than one at a time.

"This whole club smells like a fairy factory thanks to your friend 'Jonathan', or should we dispense with the cloak and dagger and call him Hunter?" she said with a half smile that didn't come anywhere near to reaching her eyes.

I snapped to attention, and then I realized that she'd called him Hunter after I'd introduced him as Jonathan. How had she known? "How…" I thought back over the murky time I had spent with them in Hana, trying to figure out when I had told them his real name. I hated that I couldn't remember what had happened, and what I had said. I'd been so sure that I could withstand the torture without breaking, but somehow I must have given him the information he wanted. I ground my teeth and squeezed my eyes with frustration and distress at the thought of those long and horrible nights.

Now I knew why Eric was so upset when he lost his memory of our week together when he was cursed. "How do you know his name?" I finally completed my thought, hoping she would fill in the blanks for me.

"Much has happened since you took off again Sookie, but I'll leave all of that for Eric to explain. I will say that only a human, or apparently a fairy/scrios hybrid could miss the ridiculously similar scent you two have. My mouth dropped open, she was right, why hadn't I thought about that? "Thank you, by the way, for blocking your scent. It makes being near you much easier, but he's just making it worse." I followed her gaze and looked over at Hunter who was dancing with a girl in a short black dress along to the sexily drawn out rhythm of a Puscifer song I hadn't heard in years. They made a cute pair with her being a short redhead and Hunter so dark and tall. Other girls were eying them jealously and I smiled at his obvious bliss. I remembered feeling that way while dancing with Eric in Rhodes before everything went to hell in a suitcase.

Pam continued, "Plus the fact that he's seriously lusting over that redhead in the ho dress doesn't help a damn thing," she squinted her eyes and glared daggers at Hunter. I was chuckling at her terminology when Hunter looked over at us and blew a kiss directly to Pam. She growled and I blinked, what was going on here? Did he know Pam or was he just flirting? I opened my shields so I could hear only Hunter's thoughts, but his mind was deliberately closed to me. Damn.

The waitress brought our drinks and Pam drank two of her bottles down immediately, dabbed at her lips with the purple, green and gold paper napkin and then took a dainty sip of the third bottle.

"How do you do it? The other vampires we ran into weren't able to resist our scent, what makes you and Eric more resistant to it?" I asked, completely enthralled. I had never seen Pam struggle before and this was something I needed to know.

"Really? Is that what happened in Oakland?" she asked with a raised eyebrow and intense interest.

I flinched at the memory but nodded my head. I would have to stand up and take responsibility for my actions now that I was home, so I should just get used to the idea of admitting my crimes.

"I knew it. I knew you wouldn't hurt anyone unless you were at risk, plus I found Hunter's blood at the scene so I was sure that you had been defending yourselves." She looked very satisfied for a few seconds and then her expression turned more thoughtful. "You pose an interesting question and I'm not certain of the answer, but I can think of a few possible reasons why we can resist the call of your blood," she said and then stopped as though that were the end of the conversation. I'd forgotten how irritatingly difficult it was to get vampires to talk.

I gave her the 'go ahead' gesture with my hand causing her to smirk at me and then she continued. "Eric is older than most vampires around today, so that makes him stronger than them and his blood has made me stronger as well. We have also been working steadily with the fairies since you left, so we are faced with regular exposure to their delicious aroma if they are unable to block their scent." She paused and licked her lips for effect and I almost rolled my eyes at her dramatics. "The other thing we have in common is you, Sookie. We both know and care for you," she glared at me when she said this, "so our instinct to attack you is tempered by that, but most importantly, we have both had your blood."

"What would my blood do to help you resist my scent? I was human when you had it, so that doesn't make sense."

Pam sighed, "You haven't learned much in all this time have you? Our blood is magical Sookie, never underestimate the power of blood, ours and yours. We didn't realize it at the time, but obviously your blood has always been very powerful, not to mention, delicious."

I ignored her hungry stare. Her words reminded me so much of Topec's constant demands that I not allow vampires to bite me, warning me that one bite would be fatal and that I should never share my blood with anyone. I was also hit by the realization that I had seen the magic of my blood in action when I had healed Macey and effectively changed her by bringing out her empathic abilities. I was sure that Pam was onto something with that idea.

Pam gave me a knowing nod and I smiled, having forgotten how self-satisfied she could be on a general basis. It must be great to be right and perfect all the time.

"But you only had a tiny bit of my blood after I was attacked by the Maenad, how could that be enough to inure you to our scent?" I asked, still eager to learn more.

"You forget that I had quite a lot of your brother's blood after I was attacked by that little shit, Alexei," she explained with a scowl.

That did make sense, Jason carried the sera fae gene exactly the way I did at that time, and so our blood would have been the same in that regard. It was something to think about. I'd have to check out other vampires who'd had some of my blood to see if they...wait, they were all finally dead. Bill and Chow were the only ones…no, "Russell," I whispered. Russell Edgington had also had my blood in Josephine's Bar when the Were, Jerry had gouged my shoulder with his fingernails. Yes, I remembered his name, you don't forget a man's name when you've pulled his dead body out of a closet and disposed of it in the woods. That's right, his name would stay with me forever, along with many others I would also like to forget.

"What about Russell?" Pam asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"Is Russell Edgington still alive?"

"Yes, he was injured in Rhodes as you know, but healed well. Why do you ask?"

"Well, he's the only other living vampire who has had my blood. I thought I'd make a point to find out how he responded to my scent to see if your theory holds water."

Pam smiled widely and the effect was a little scary, "Why not just ask Bill?"

My mouth dropped open, "But you…I saw in your thoughts…"

"You saw exactly what I wanted you to see Sookie. You gave yourself away when you pulled your hair back in that habitual pattern you have, so to be sure it was you, I thought of all the memories I had that would upset you the most." Her smile grew wider and more vicious, "Bill was seriously injured in the battle at your 'funeral' and Eric almost gave him the final death he asked for, but offered him an alternative instead...which Bill unfortunately accepted. What you saw was my fantasy of how I wished things had worked out. As you know, Bill is not my favorite vampire."

"Bill's not finally dead?" I asked, completely shocked.

"No, Sookie, he's living in Oklahoma when he's not traveling around the world working on his database," she said looking around the room, bored already with this conversation.

"How about that?" I said to no one in particular. "What about everything else, were your other memories real?" I was hoping that she had also modified the images of Eric's grieving and that what I saw was worse than reality.

"The memory of Bill's decapitation was my only alteration of reality in what I showed you," she said seriously, squashing my hopes.

Huh, I wasn't sure what to make of this information. Obviously Pam didn't want to talk about Bill too much, so I'd have to find him myself. I'd like to see him again, I was still grateful for his part in saving me from Lochlan and Naeve and for the way he stood up for me against Breandan, but I could really do without all his drama and futile hopes of us getting back together. I could almost hear his pledges of his undying love and devotion to me, ugh, that was so awful to listen to. He always sucked the life out of whatever room he was in, no pun intended. Maybe I didn't need to see him again. Yes, he'd saved me, but I'd saved him right back by freeing him from Lorena and by contacting his sister to heal him, so we were even. Plus I was still wary of the easy way he piled lie on top of lie when he was 'courting' me at the behest of Sophie Anne.

I understood now that he had no choice but to obey Lorena and I didn't blame him for leaving me to go to her, but I did blame him for keeping me in the dark about why he came to Louisiana in the first place and for beginning and continuing our relationship under false pretenses. I had no doubt that he had grown to love me, but those lies were something I couldn't ever forget or forgive. If he were a man of great decency, he would have come clean before Eric forced him to. All that aside, the biggest obstacle that kept me from wanting to seek him out right away was simply that I didn't enjoy his company very much. Maybe it was a throwback to the time that he was alive, but he seemed to like the image of me as a weak, dependent woman and I was never going to be that again. I could see how incompatible we were in so many ways now. It was amazing that I couldn't see that before. Well, either way, I'd deal with that later, if I had to. I had bigger fish to fry right now…a big, tall, blond fish to be exact.

I shook myself back to the present and remembered something Pam had said earlier that I needed to clarify, "So, what's up with the fae? Why are you guys interacting with them and why in the heck were you gathering up fairies in Oakland?" I asked Pam.

She sat silently for a while, now looking out at the horde of revelers on the dance floor. I knew that she was thinking, so I didn't bother her, but I hated that she might be deciding what to tell me, and what to withhold. I needed to know everything if I was going to survive out in the open, and I wasn't going to put up with anything but full disclosure from Eric or Pam.

"I need to let Eric explain all of that to you, he's the one who's been working closely with Niall and so he has the most details. I don't want to give you incorrect information," she said cautiously, her body language telling me that she was aware that this answer would not make me happy, but that I needed to accept her words and wait for Eric. "The situation between the fae and vampires is rocky at best and Eric is right in the middle. I can't risk misrepresenting the situation."

I understood her reasoning but still was impatient and she could sense it.

"Why don't you just read my mind? she asked, "You did it easily enough before."

I felt a sickening wave of panic run through my chest as I flashed back to the moment when Eric forced his thoughts on me in Hana. Out of all the things that happened in that room…that was the hardest for me to deal with, and to leave behind. It didn't bother me that he put his thoughts in my mind, I'd dealt with hearing thoughts I didn't want all my life. What had made me feel so defenseless was that he had pressed his thoughts into my mind while he was hurting me.

I shook my head, "No thanks," I said and looked away from her.

"That scares you. Why? You were comfortable using your telepathy with me before. Although I can't say I liked having you in my mind, it's an exceptionally valuable tool for you to have especially now that you are not quite as fragile as you were before. Why won't you use it now?" she asked, her eyes boring into the side of my head with hot intensity.

The overwhelming emotions from those nights came tumbling back to me as she tried to open this door that I was not ready to explore yet. During the few years that I had spent with vampires, my body had been repeatedly abused and violated, but my one safe place had always been inside my head since I couldn't hear them. Having my mind and body violated at the same time brought back childhood memories of horrible thoughts I didn't have the ability to keep out of my mind when someone else was hurting me. Those were thoughts and fears that I should have exorcised a long time ago, but that I guess I just haven't been strong enough to overcome yet.

Forcing his way into my mind was a very effective torture method for Eric to use on me at the time, but I had not recognized the full impact until now. Was this why I was so much more sensitive to Eric's actions than Pam's? Was I correlating Eric's violation of my mind with…? Fuck!

I closed my eyes and ground my teeth, trying to pull myself together, '_I am not a victim_!' I mentally scolded myself. I was when I was a child, but I chose to let Eric hurt me to achieve my own goals, he just happened to do it in a unique way that caught me off guard. He was nothing like that sick bastard who called himself an uncle. The fact that their names even came up in the same sentence was disgusting and a major insult to Eric. They were polar opposites; it was simply my emotionally damaged perception of the situation that was the causal link between the two.

Suddenly Hunter was at my side, his hand on my arm. His touch made me realize that I had my head in my hands, my fingers tightly grasping my hair. I slowly relaxed my hands and sat up straight again, taking a cleansing breath. Well, I thought sarcastically, this certainly was a night for epiphanies.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

My emotions must have leaked through my shields, double fuck. I needed to eat something and get back to Washington or Hana to replenish my energy. I can't lie, the urge to get the hell out of here was really strong, but I held my ground. If these thirty-five year old memories were what was driving my urge to flee, then I would not allow them to do so anymore. I would not allow that pathetic excuse for a man to taint my life and my relationship with Eric anymore…not now that I understood what was happening. No, I would use this unsettling knowledge, and allow it to give me power and serve as a very valuable form of guidance for me. I had been behaving instinctively; relying on my emotions to guide me rather than thinking things through, but that would stop right now. Before I could do anything however, I needed to get some energy, "I'm fine, but I need something to eat, you should have something too," I told him, my voice tighter and sharper than I wanted to hear it.

Hunter gave me a harassed smile, "I'll order it, what do you want?"

"Thanks. Anything would be fine, you know what I like," I said with a shrug.

He gave Pam a warning glance and walked to the bar to order our midnight snack. I looked at my phone again; it was only 12:15 AM. I sighed; this was going to be a really long night.

"Sookie?" Pam requested my attention quietly. I waited a few moments before I turned to look her in the eye. Her face was impassive, but her tone belied her calm. "I understand if you don't want to talk with me about this, but please, you have to let Eric in; you have to let him know how you feel."

I shook my head, "It's not his fault," I said, knowing and hating that he would blame himself if I told him about the lingering effects of those nights.

"He's aware of that and of the fact that you both will have much to work through, but neither of you will be able to move on from this if you don't let him know how you feel," she said seriously.

I nodded, more to get her off my back than anything. I had to see how things went with him before I committed to opening this or other cans of worms. I was a big girl; I could get over this by myself once I had some more time to think. I was the problem here, not Eric.

We sat quietly for a while and then Hunter and I ate our bar food while Pam focused intently on her phone.

Hunter stayed with us, chatting about simple topics and lightening the tense atmosphere. He caught me up on some of the TV series we had watched together, last year's football season, how the school and hospital foundations were doing and some new projects the kids at the high school were developing. He started to tell me about Macey's family, but I mentally told him to avoid talking about them in front of Pam, I wasn't willing to bring them any farther into danger than I already had last year. Pam noticed our exchange with a raised eyebrow but thankfully let the matter drop.

When we were all out of small talk, Hunter called his friends over and I sat and listened while they chatted about their lives and tried to hit on Pam. It was nice to have something to laugh at, and Pam didn't disappoint, flashing her fangs at Kevin, who was particularly persistent. Sadly, my amusement only lasted so long, and as the morning wore on, I withdrew more and more. Two o'clock came and went and at 2:45 Hunter's friends left. I tried to get Hunter to go back to the hotel with them, but he demanded on waiting for me even though he was exhausted.

Pam sat in down time during most of this, occasionally checking her phone, and the next message she received from Eric was at 3:10, saying that he was running late, but would be leaving soon. When she got that message, I was finally able to convince Hunter to leave, with the promise that he would text me when he arrived, he was asleep on his feet.

"Aren't you tired?" Pam asked me after we had watched Hunter leave the club.

"No," I responded quietly. We sat in silence for the next 30 minutes. If he were going to come, he would have been here by now; Pam was due at the airport in an hour. The small bit of hope I had allowed to bloom in my heart began to fade.

Pam noticed my sinking mood, "He's frustrated and worried, something is holding him back or he would be here," she said rationally with a slight shrug of her shoulder.

By the time 4:00 rolled by, I was feeling like an idiot. He wasn't coming. Pam was either wrong or a sadistic bitch. I really hoped she was wrong, because I couldn't stand the idea that she was playing me for a fool all this time. I didn't believe that she would waste her night sitting with me if it were just a game to her, but that didn't change the fact that our window of opportunity was coming to a close.

Finally, I accepted the inevitable. I opened my purse, removed a few bills and placed them on the small table in front of the couch and then numbly stood up, fighting with the extreme weight of my disappointment. Pam was in front of me in the blink of an eye.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked me. Her fangs were out. She'd been drinking all night so I figured she was angry rather than hungry.

"It's late Pam. Get to the airport, you don't want to miss your flight," I said, trying to make my voice neutral since I wasn't sure what her feelings were with this situation.

"Sookie, wait. He'll come." Her eyes drifted out of focus as she paid attention to what I had to assume was her bond with Eric. "He's no longer being detained in whatever meeting held him the last few hours, something has changed. He'll be on his way in a minute."

"Sure. I'll just go to the ladies room, and then I'll be right back," I said quietly. I didn't actually have to go, but I wanted some privacy for just a minute, my emotions were such a mess.

"No," she said definitively and she took my hand in hers. "Sookie, you have no idea what he's up against at this summit, it's imperative that he get all his preparation done so he can effectively…participate."

A bell rang in the back of my head, warning me that something big was going on at the summit, but I was so irritated with all the half-truths I was being fed that I didn't take the time to figure it all out. Here I was again, right back where I had started, being lied to and manipulated under the guise of a thin veil of truth. Why the fuck wouldn't she tell me more about what was going on? She had to know more than she was saying. Well I wasn't going to put up with it anymore. I hated not being brave enough to listen to her thoughts to know if she was playing me for a fool or not and my irritation got the best of me, causing me to lose my temper a little.

"Do you want to come with me Pam? Get a little closer? Here, maybe this'll help."

I released the hold I had over my scent and she stepped back, dropped my hand, and growled through clenched teeth, "Eric's up to his eyeballs in shit right now and if you could get your head out of your ass for awhile, you would realize that and be grateful to him rather than causing him more stress for once."

I stupidly ignored her, "No? You don't want to come? Okay, I'll be right back," I said cruelly and I stalked off to the ladies room, leaving her behind without a glance.

Once I was safely inside the stall, I leaned my head against the cool door. I shouldn't have been so rude to Pam, but the uncertainty of the situation was driving me crazy. Why had I allowed myself to get my hopes up? I thought about leaving, but if there was even the slimmest chance that Pam was right, I could force myself to wait a few more minutes.

I finished up in the bathroom, washed my hands and went back into the club. Pam was waiting right where I had left her. I sent her an apologetic glance and she nodded, forgiving me. I took a few steps toward her and was engulfed by the dwindling crowd of incredibly drunken idiots. I didn't have to lower my shields to know that most everyone here was looking for some companionship, myself included.

Two large guys immediately honed in on me, trying to get my attention. I took a step away from them, but they followed. I was not amused or interested; I only wanted companionship from one man. I dropped my shields and realized that they were Weres. I swore at my stupid temper, and clamped down on my scent. It would take a few minutes for it to dissipate, but at least the Weres shouldn't get worked up any further.

Pam had moved closer, but I gestured to her to keep her distance, I didn't want to cause a scene. Now that I understood why they were so drawn to me, I tried to be kind, "I'm tired fellas...going home. Excuse me," but they persisted. The thick smell of alcohol coming from both of them attested to the fact that my scent wasn't the only thing affecting their judgment.

I was about to try a more forceful approach when a huge presence appeared and we all looked up into the furious blazing blue eyes of the rabid vampire standing inches from us. His fangs were fully apparent and an angry growl in which I could just decipher the word "Mine" ripped from his chest, causing my knees to weaken from desire and relief at the sight of him. His furious stare pushed the darker Were back a full foot before he gave Eric a small nod and disappeared into the crowd. Eric turned to stare behind me, and I sensed the other Were leave as well. His burning eyes finally fell on me and I could all but feel his gaze scorching me as it swept from my chest down to my legs, taking in my moderately revealing light blue and gray dress. He ran his hands down the front of his charcoal colored button down shirt, sending the buttons scattering around the dance floor, removed the shirt, threw it around me and tied the sleeves at my waist. Without ever making eye contact, he scooped me up in his arms, ran out of the bar and jumped into the sky before I could even blink.

He was seething, his fangs still fully descended, jaw tight and clearly deep in thought. I wasn't worried about his anger; I could see that it wasn't directed at me, at least not much of it. All that mattered at this moment was that he had finally come for me, just as Pam had said he would. I decided to wait, to allow him to calm down and take the next step. In the meantime, I took the chance to drink in his beauty. I was filled with hope, longing and want as my eyes ran over his strong features. Our hair whipped around us, mine now more discernible from his by the wave that ran the length of each strand. I craved to reach up and stroke his cheek, but knew my touch would be unwelcome right now when he was so upset. I kept my left hand in my lap and my head on his t-shirt to protect him from the silver on my wrist and in my hair and ears, and I could feel that his shirt covered my belt completely.

We had only been flying for a few minutes through the dark sky when he landed on the roof of a large square building in the center of the city. It seemed vaguely familiar and I realized that it must be the Queen's old headquarters that I had visited so long ago. I felt a surge of pity for him, seeing that this was now his home. I knew that he hadn't wanted to be King and the sight of the large, sterile building made his sacrifice that much more real to me. I knew now that he had accepted this responsibility to keep me with him, and I had left him at the exact same time. At least he had been freed from the tyranny that was Victor and Felipe in the process.

He kept me tight in his arms as he walked to a door and placed his fingers in a sunken opening just big enough for his large hand. I heard him tapping numerous buttons and understood that he was activating a keypad that was hidden to keep prying eyes from seeing the numbers he touched. He removed his hand as the door swung open and strode into the building. He nodded at three surprised guards and was let through another locked door. I blushed at their curious stares, sure that we would be the talk of the building within the hour. I shook my hair to cover the right side of my face and turned into Eric's black t-shirt that was covering his beautiful chest and shoulders as we passed though two more manned checkpoints before we entered what looked like the main business area which was thankfully empty at the moment. It was probably so quiet during the transition between night and day staff with dawn approaching. Even though there were few people to see, I was still very grateful for his shirt covering my bottom and upper legs since my dress was definitely too short to conceal either in this position.

He entered another code into a similarly designed keypad and then placed his splayed hand on a white panel. The system buzzed, unlocking the door and he stepped into an elevator. When the door closed, he activated another keypad and hand scan but the elevator didn't move up, instead it moved sideways for a few seconds and then the door opened into his private sitting area that had access to an office and bedroom. The door slid shut behind us and I relaxed a little, placed my head back on his chest and let out a gentle sigh of relief. '_Thank you_,' I prayed silently. After all this time, with all the choices I had made to tear us apart, after all our mistakes, Eric was still here for me. I knew he would be upset with me and with good reason, but I couldn't help the simple joy I felt from simply being with him. I had wanted this for so long…been alone for so very long.

I felt him pause briefly and soften for just a moment as I cuddled against him, but then he clenched his jaw again and continued walking into his bedroom, past his bed, into the large closet and to the far wall. He moved some clothes to reveal another security panel and entered yet another code. This time, he placed his eye to a small sensor in the wall. A small green light next to the sensor flashed briefly and then the wall at the back end of the closet silently slid open.

He stepped into the air and by the light of the room behind us; I saw a sunken living area far below with a sitting area, bedroom, bathroom and small kitchen. We began to descend into blackness, which became absolute as the door slid closed behind us.

I figured that this must be his secure sleeping chamber, but as we descended, I realized that something was wrong…very, very wrong. Without conscious thought, I began to struggle to get out of Eric's arms and back up to the doorway we had passed through, but his grasp would not relent. Through my panic I heard what must have been my own voice gasping out, "No, please, this is bad…I need to get out…I don't like this Eric…" and then a sickening wave of dizziness rolled through my head and I stopped struggling and held on to him with weak arms in the hopes of regaining my equilibrium.

I felt his feet touch the ground and for the first time since we left the bar, he put me down and helped me balance on my own before he stepped back out of my reach. It was pitch black, so I could only hope that he had left me to turn on a light. Apparently my eyes, although more sensitive than they used to be, needed some light to see since I was completely blind down here; but right now, I didn't want to see…I was too dizzy. I placed my hands on my head to try and control the spinning and sunk to the thick, soft carpet, panting to try and keep the contents of my stomach where they belonged while I waited for Eric to return to me. Why was I feeling so terrible? I hadn't had a sip of alcohol in hours and I'd felt fine until entering this underground chamber, so there must be something here that was making me ill. It felt oddly familiar.

I closed my eyes and focused on being in the cozy room above me, but I couldn't muster the power necessary to teleport. I moaned and tried again, but it was like I was reaching for something that wasn't actually there and I could literally feel the 'fingers' of my mind which usually wielded this power, passing through the mirage of my ability. I couldn't find my power, couldn't connect with that part of my being.

I didn't hear him through the sound of my labored breathing, but I felt him return. Just a shift of the carpet fibers alerted me to his feet nearing my body and I felt him settle on the carpet next to me. He hands unerringly found my clammy forehead and my shaking hands before he gathered me up into his lap with my cheek resting against his chest. I groaned again, afraid that I would be sick and I heard him say urgently, "Turn it down!" but I didn't know what he was talking about and I didn't have the wherewithal to spare to try and figure it out at the time since I was so busy trying not to vomit.

I felt Eric shift and stand and I clamped my stomach muscles down and held my head, whimpering as the world spun sickeningly with his slightest movements. He walked, carrying me for a few seconds and then I felt him turn around and shut a door behind us. The space we were in now was dark as well, but was much cooler and I felt the dizziness melt away and take along with it my urge to be sick and to flee.

I took a few slow, deep breaths and groaned, "Oh my God. What was that?" and I felt Eric relax. He hugged me tightly to his chest, kissed my head repeatedly and then lowered me to a bed and I sunk into thick soft covers. I waited for him to climb in next to me, but he remained outside the bed, apparently kneeling alongside me with his forehead resting on my hands, which he now had clasped tightly in his.

After a few moments, he kissed my knuckles, "Are you better? he asked quietly."

I nodded carefully and said, "Yes," just in case he couldn't see my gesture. "What happened?" I questioned.

He didn't answer me, but instead asked me a question of his own. "Sookie, did Pam tell you that we have the Amun summit in Memphis starting tomorrow night?"

"Yes," I answered weakly, "she said you were leaving tonight."

"She's correct, our flight is scheduled to leave in twenty minutes. I have to be there Sookie. There are matters to which I must attend for at least the first two nights. It would be disastrous if I were to be late."

"Pam told me that you're Louisiana's King now and that you're allied with Oklahoma. I understand that you have responsibilities. Go, I won't get in your way."

"You're not in my way Sookie. In fact, I want you very much to be 'in my way'," he said with a slight desperation tainting his voice and then he paused before continuing, "You really didn't know that I hadn't married Oklahoma and that I was Louisiana's King until Pam told you?" he asked with disbelief in his tone.

"I assumed that you had married Oklahoma so when Pam called you 'Majesty' in Hana I just guessed that you were the King of Oklahoma."

"You never looked back, checked the news…anything to find out what happened?" he asked. I could hear the disappointment in his voice.

"I couldn't...I had to move forward," I said lamely. I didn't have the strength to explain more thoroughly.

I felt his jaw clench against my hands and he shook his head, passing his lips across my skin repeatedly in the gesture.

"We don't have time to get into this right now, but I want to know exactly what happened to drive you away from me and everything that you've been doing all this time. For now Sookie, I need you to wait for me," he said with a slight hesitation in his voice.

"I will. I'm sorry I was being so evasive, there's just too much going on for me to make sense of right now, I'm a bit of a mess," I answered. "Just help me get out of here, I can't seem to do it myself and I'll wait for you to come back."

"No Sookie, what I meant was that I want you to wait here for me to return," he said slowly and clearly.

"What? No!" I said, sitting up suddenly and blinking the slight dizziness out of my head. "I can't stay in here, something is making me sick. I need to be outside Eric. You saw how I heal, I don't think I can do that in here," I explained quickly.

"I'm taking care of that, the temperature was set too high. Once it's cooler, you'll feel much better. You're already recovering in this room because it was never heated," he said briskly.

"What are you talking about? Let me out of here!" I demanded, feeling more than a little anxious and claustrophobic now.

"No. You've slipped through my fingers too many times. I won't allow it anymore. You will wait here for me. You'll be safe and well provided for."

I ripped my hands from his and grabbed onto his shirt as tight as I could, but he continued, "Listen to me Sookie. Niall was here tonight, that's why I was late, and I won't risk him finding you without me there to protect you and to explain the situation to him," he said with a deep growl in his voice.

"I can take care of myself Eric," I said, "just get me out of here. I'll go back to Hana. Niall can't go there. I'll wait for you there and meet you wherever you want when you're done at the summit."

"No. You will wait right here for me until we have a chance to talk," he said with a tight jaw. "I won't risk losing you again."

"Then I'll go to the summit with you," I said desperately, ignoring the flashbacks of Rhodes. Anything would be better than being stuck down in here.

"That's not possible, I will not be able to protect you there either."

What the hell was going on at this summit? Eric was a king so he should be at the top of the food chain, so to speak. I remembered the deference the kings and queens were paid, except for Sophie-Ann who was on trial for…oh no...

"Eric, are you in trouble?" I asked, my chest going cold with fear as I remembered the terrifyingly swift carriage of justice at the trials I had attended in Rhodes.

"No," he answered shortly, "but I am the subject of an inquiry filed by the Queen of California Sacramento and the Sheriff of Oakland in regards to…"

"No!" I interrupted, absolutely certain that I knew where this was going and digging my fingers into the flesh of his arms. I knew it would catch up with me sooner or later, but I never thought that Eric would be blamed for my actions. "No, you had nothing to do with that, I killed those vampires and the Weres. It's my fault. Take me with you and I'll explain what happened and face the consequences." Eric growled loudly, but I continued. "I'm prepared for this, have been from the very night it happened. Let me do this, Eric. It's not your fault! They can't blame you for what I did!"

He gave me a slight shake to get my attention, "The inquiry is not directly in regards to the deaths of the five team members, it is to explore the validity of my orders that created the teams in the first place. The Queen of California's position is that my motivations are skewed by my former relationship with you, when her real incentive is to discredit Freyda and I and take over Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nevada and Arkansas by default," he said with venom in his voice. "She will not succeed, I have thorough records and a diverse group of states working with me on this issue. I made sure that I could not be accused of taking these steps on my own. Don't worry Sookie, this will be over soon and I'll return to you as quickly as I can." He paused for a brief moment, "But if something does go wrong, someone will come for you. For now, please wait here. I can't give this inquiry the attention it requires if I'm worried about you."

I shook my head in refusal, but he stood up, pried my hands off his arms and released his hold on my shoulders. I felt like a boat out on an open ocean without his hands to anchor me.

"Eric!" I called into the darkness, terror tainting my voice.

Suddenly his hands were on me again and I scrambled to hold onto him. "Do you have any idea what you did to me when you left?" he asked angrily, and then continued without waiting for my response, "No, I can see you don't. I've been given a second chance and I won't fail you again," he swore. "You will stay here where it's safe until I return."

I was speechless and he disengaged himself from my tight grip again and I heard the door open, "Stay in this room for a few more hours until the other rooms have a chance to cool down and then you should be comfortable wherever you go. If you feel ill, return to this room and close the door," he said, and then there was nothing but silence.

A second later, a small light turned on in the hallway and I pushed myself out of the bed and stumbled toward it, my eyes tearing from the pain of adjusting to the light after the absolute darkness, but Eric was nowhere in sight. The area outside the bedroom was definitely warmer and the dizziness and nausea returned to me moments after I entered the hallway.

A light emanated from the door above me and I managed to look up although it made me dizzier than ever and I dropped back to my knees again. I had to stop him. I couldn't let him face this trial on his own. Images of the upturned stake sitting on the table at the trials haunted me, and all I could envision was that stake being used on Eric. Where was he? I squinted my eyes and was able to make out a familiar tall body framed in the light. "Eric!" His name came out of my mouth in a whisper instead of the yell I had intended, "Please don't do this. Let me go with you, let me help you!" I begged, my voice stronger now.

"Sookie," he said desperately, "listen to me for once. Get back in the bedroom. That is what would help me the most right now, I don't have the time to take you back there myself."

My heart dropped to my stomach and I knelt there, too weak to do anything while I watched in absolute devastated shock as his dark outline passed out of sight and the door slid shut, cutting out the light, my exit and the man I loved.

The sound of my frantic scream rang through the chamber, echoing cruelly and was unheard by anyone but me.

A/N: Boy things are never easy for these two. I'm so mean! I can't blame that on the jet lag... I have some of the next chapter written and so I hope to post again soon. I do have some doubts that I'll be able to return to the consistent two times a week posting since I'll soon be entering uncharted territories with this story. I had originally planned on ending it after they talk but I'm getting too intrigued by the fairy and vampire details to stop just yet, as you might be able to tell by the new drama I'm adding for Eric to deal with, poor guy.


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed and a special hello to everyone who has added this story to their favorites and alerts (lots of you joined recently). I used to have the time to greet you all personally, but my chapters have gotten longer and my life busier so this is a group shout out to you all...Thanks and hello! (I'm still responding to all the reviews personally and hope to continue doing so till I wrap this up.) This is one of my longest chapters has POVs from both Sookie and Eric and includes some familiar and some new characters...Enjoy.

Chapter 28

'Time Out'

S~

"Eric?" I said to the darkness after the door had fully closed, but there was no response. I dropped my shields and searched for his mind, not trying to read it, just sense it, but there was nothing…nothing anywhere around me.

I sought farther away and found that I could sense the guards in the halls far above, but no Eric. Where had he gone? Why couldn't I hear him?

Suddenly it hit me. I was alone…completely and utterly alone down here and Eric was going to face the vampire community to take responsibility for my crimes. I knew that was what he was doing, no matter what he'd said. My heart began to pound even faster and my hands shook. I couldn't believe this was happening. Could I lose him now when I had finally reached a point where I could see myself standing beside him as an equal?

No. I wouldn't allow it. I would get out of here and help him. I had the rest of this night and all day tomorrow to figure something out before the summit even began and if I remembered correctly, the trials occurred on the second night at Rhodes. Or was it later in the evening of the first night? It was all such a jumble to me now. Well, I had at least fifteen hours to find a way out and then I could teleport right to his side. I wouldn't let him do this without me.

The first thing I needed to do was get back into the bedroom and away from this heat so I could recover again, Eric was right, I felt much better in there. I pushed myself up so I was standing and I stumbled down the hallway toward the bedroom. I was seeing double so I bumped into what turned out to be a small kitchen table and then crashed into the small side table that was holding the lamp and I gasped as the lamp tumbled to the floor and I heard the telltale pop and saw the accompanying flash of light as the bulb burned out.

"Fuck," I yelled in absolute frustration as I was once again immersed in darkness, but I kept moving forward. The next thing I bumped into was the wall and I cried out in shock when my hand and forearm made contact with the smooth surface. It was flaming hot and now the blade of my right hand and the whole outside of my arm was screaming in agony from the very real burn. I stood still for a few moments, waiting for the pain to abate and my arm to heal before I slowly made my way toward where I thought the room was located. I felt each step with the bottom of my shoe and was also drawn toward the bedroom by the cool air emanating from the space.

Once I was inside, I closed the door behind myself and felt better the minute I was separated from the other rooms by a mere door. I propped my head against the door and allowed myself a few moments to release the tension and worry. I cried for a few minutes then wiped my face with my hand and switched to focusing on my anger rather than on my more fragile emotions. I felt better and stronger after releasing a string of profanities aimed at Eric in my anger and concern and then I was ready to get to my task of freeing myself right away.

My arm had healed quickly and I thought that if I was able to calm down well enough, maybe I could muster the necessary energy to teleport myself out of here. It was a simple task to me now and was such an elemental part of my nature, I was sure that with enough effort I would be able to tap into my abilities.

I focused on taking deep breaths and after I had calmed myself, I tried to teleport again, but nothing was there. I was empty, completely void of the magic necessary to complete the task. I tried again and again but was unable to free myself.

I wasn't willing to give up. I knew without a doubt that Eric would never spend time down in this hole if he didn't have an escape route and since the main door was near the ceiling of the main room, I began to search for a way out at the ground level of the bedroom. I spent probably hours searching first the walls, with the hopes of finding a working light switch or a hidden entrance and then the floor for any kind of trapdoor. I slid my hands blindly over every inch of wall and floor I could reach and knocked on every piece of wood, hoping to discern a hidden way out. Nothing presented itself, so either I was mistaken in my assumption, which I doubted, or I was missing something.

I was furious and sore by the time I was done searching. I had even crawled under the bed to check for an escape route there, but it was all to no avail. I couldn't discern any hint of a passageway out of this room and the other rooms were still too hot to explore. I had opened the door briefly to assess the situation and heat poured in, making me feel ill again.

Still I was unwilling to give up. I transformed myself into a mouse, a skill i had spent months honing in Britlin, and searched blindly along each corner and crevice to feel for airflow or irregularities in the wood. Once again, I was disappointed when I found nothing. I transformed back, sat down on the floor in the middle of the room and ran my hands through my now tangled hair while I thought about other strategies I could use to get out of here and to Eric's side.

I wasn't sure how this had happened. Couldn't he see? I could be of help to him. I didn't need someone to protect me anymore and I told him I wouldn't run anymore, he should have listened to me. What was I…a child being placed in 'time out' for bad behavior?

I smiled as I thought of Eric's reaction when he woke up in Tennessee and found me at his side, he would have no choice but to realize that I wasn't someone to fuck with anymore.

A quick check of a human mind nearby me in the building told me that it was now eleven in the morning. I stopped and listened more closely for a while when I caught some strange thoughts coming from the rooms to the sides of this chamber. What in the world? I was absolutely sure that I was hearing members of a right wing group focused on fighting the laws that allowed legal integration of vampires and the two-natured with the human population. What were they doing in Eric's headquarters? Had he gone crazy? I listened some more and was relieved to find that although these people were determined to further their cause, they were fighting it through the legal system rather than through a violent or faux-religious stance like the Fellowship of the Sun. Their presence here was still intriguing to me.

I focused on my nearest company, who was reading a document written by a 'lawyer' still fighting to make all the two-natured register themselves. Even the bigot reading the document thought he was behind the times. She was trying to find new ways to isolate the supernatural community from humans but didn't have any clear ideas yet, and I could tell that she wasn't really convinced she was doing the right thing. She had spent some time in the dining area the day before, sitting next to a woman who told her she was a were-coyote and she had actually found her to be a very nice person. Plus the woman was working on a program that provided assistance to kids in Louisiana's foster system, and was helping all kids, not just supernatural ones. This woman was thinking about finding out how to volunteer to participate in this project and I had to chuckle at the way she was being gently handled to cure her of her intolerance.

She wasn't aware that this building housed the King of Louisiana, but knew that many of the vampires and two-nautred 'people' working here were involved in community-related projects. There were always notices in the hallways, dining area and post office that asked for volunteers to join the various organizations that were formed to help Louisianans. Ever since her boss had moved her here for the amazingly cheap office space, her opinion about vampires and the two-natured was becoming less and less definite.

I smiled even more widely. Eric was a sly one, and so like a Venus Flytrap. I was so proud of him for figuring out a way to draw in his opponents and slowly bring them over from the 'dark side.' He must have a great team that he was working with, because he would never have come up with this on his own. Not that he wasn't forward thinking, but his perception of humans just didn't work that way. I decided to keep a close 'ear' out for this woman while I was down here, just for pure curiosity's sake, although I was pretty sure that she wasn't a threat.

The other minds I heard from floors well above me were more along the lines of what I expected to hear. They thought about meetings, planning sessions, legal work and other more mundane tasks that had to be completed in the King's absence.

When I dug my mind out of my neighbor's thoughts, I realized that I was cold and still wearing my dress and Eric's shirt, so I pulled his shirt from around my waist and slipped it over my arms and held it closed in the front. It was missing all the buttons, so this would have to do.

Since I was cold, I thought that maybe the outer rooms had cooled, and maybe I would now be strong enough to get out of here. I focused harder than I had ever done before on my powers, but once again I found no ability to connect with them. I felt…different, less somehow. I didn't feel as I did when I was a one-eighth fairy/human hybrid, but much more so than I had for almost two decades.

Okay, I thought, I can handle this, I existed without these powers before, and I can do it again. So I took a deep breath which bolstered my courage and focused to find some other ways out of here.

I could mentally nudge someone in the building to call the police or get the Were guards to try and get me out, but I was sure that only Eric and maybe Pam had the authority to enter his private quarters and this chamber. All I would achieve by drawing attention to myself would be to upset people and probably get the Weres in trouble for trying to break into the King's private rooms. Forget that…next.

I held out my hand and gently pushed from my core, the area in which I recruited the power of fire, and was shocked when a large flame exploded from my hand, reaching at least a few feet from my hand and briefly illuminating the space around me. Luckily nothing caught on fire, but now I was seeing a large white shape floating everywhere I looked. Okay, so not only did I have that power, but it was somehow amplified.

I decided to play with this for a while to see if I could get my bearings. Again I held out my hand and instead of pushing, I just let the power flow slowly out of me and was pleased when a small flame emanated from my palm and gently lit the room. I stood up, opened the door and waited for a wave of nausea that didn't come. The space was much colder than before but still warmer than the bedroom. The short hallway where I had burned myself led into the small kitchen which was equipped with a small table, stove, microwave, oven, sink and refrigerator. Why he needed a full kitchen down here was completely beyond me since he only needed a microwave and a small refrigerator to hold his bottled bloods.

Beyond the kitchen was a large room that was comfortably appointed with couches, chairs and a large flat-screened television attached to the wall. The room was about forty feet long by twenty feet wide and had thick soft carpet and the heavy leather furniture scattered about.

I couldn't see where the bathroom was but assumed it must be back off the bedroom, and now I was determined to find it, having a great need for the facilities and for a drink of water.

I utilized fire to light my way to the bathroom, which I used in the dark with great relief and then made my way by very cautious feel back into the kitchen, meticulously avoiding the walls. I didn't light my way because my palm was stinging from maintaining the fire for just a minute, so I would have to use it judiciously. I felt around until I found what I was looking for and opened the refrigerator, hoping it would provide me with another source of light. It was cool but there was no light. I ignored the contents, found the sink and drank cool, crisp water directly from the tap and then splashed some on my face, neck and chest. It felt so good that I immediately craved a shower.

I know it seems strange to want a shower when I had much bigger problems, but I was sure that I would think more clearly once I was clean. I had been sweating when I was so nauseous, and earlier in the night from dancing at the club before Pam arrived, so I felt disgusting.

It was a strange experience taking a shower in the complete dark, but I was able to find some shampoo, soap and a big fluffy towel. I dried off and made my way naked into the bedroom by feel. I found the bed easily in the middle of the room, climbed into the center and curled up under the thick covers.

I moaned when I realized that the sheets smelled of Eric. He had been here recently, maybe just the day before. No matter how angry I was with him, I still loved him. I placed one pillow under the covers and draped my leg over it. I hugged another to my stomach and chest and placed a third pillow wedged behind my back, and I felt safe for the first time since Eric had left me down here.

In this position, which offered me a small bit of comfort, I was finally able to fully contemplate my situation, to reason things out rather than act. I didn't want to think about Eric's treachery or his peril when I was so comfortably surrounded by his scent, so I pondered what was holding me here and why I couldn't use some of my powers. Maybe it was witchcraft. I hadn't been around a witch since Amelia and never would understand the full extent of their abilities, so that was a viable option. Plus Eric was accustomed to working with witches and Jason said he had hired Amelia occasionally, so I was sure that he had a few on staff, maybe even Amelia. How ironic would it be if my friend had been used to imprison me? This thought gave me hope and I listened for her mental voice from above me, but she wasn't there.

If it wasn't witchcraft that held me here, what else could it be? I reviewed what I knew. I had my telepathy; ability to create fire, heal and shift forms…what about strength? I felt around on the nightstand and found a remote, which of course didn't work. I squeezed it as hard as I could and it made a creaking noise and then cracked into two pieces lengthwise along the seam. Tiny pieces of innards fell into the bed and I spent the next few minutes brushing who knows what out of my one comfortable spot in this hole.

As I brushed the bed cover, my fingers came upon a larger shard of metal and I sat bolt upright. Could it be? Maybe. I tried to stir the air like I learned to do in Britlin, but once again when I tried to grab that power, there was nothing there. Fairy…the powers that came from my sky fairy lineage through Fintan were gone.

Iron! Iron weakens sky and water fairies but strengthens the sera fae part of me that pulls power from the volcanic rocks of the earth. Iron. This space must be surrounded by huge amounts of iron for it to weaken me so badly and to completely inhibit my fairy-based powers, since it had never hurt me before…except for on Oahu.

I felt my way to the door, opened it and made my way carefully to the hallway and used my powers to light my way to the wall where I had felt the heat earlier. Sure enough, the wall was a flat sheet of iron. I picked up my shoe from where I had left it on the carpet in the bedroom and hit the heel on the wall. The dull thud told me that the wall was solid iron, not just a thin sheet.

Son of a bitch. What was Eric thinking? For all he knew, I could be fairy dust or ash or whatever the hell I would become when I died down here. I had to get the out of here, this was crazy.

I held my flame closer to the wall and placed my other hand an inch from it, feeling for the heat that had burned me before. I sensed a small innate desire to move away from the wall, but no intense heat, so I carefully placed my index finger on the smooth surface and hissed as it burned my fingertip. I'm not sure if it was the heat that burned me or simply the iron the way silver burned vampires. Either way, it stung enough that I placed my finger in my mouth to cool it down as I made my way slowly back into bed.

Iron. Shit. How had Eric known, when I wouldn't have even had a clue if I hadn't had a conversation with Pele herself? I had known that molten iron made me sick, but this iron was solid…the key must be that it was hot. He heated the iron to weaken me, knowing somehow that it would keep me here, force me to 'wait for him' as he had said before he left me here to rot.

I repeated myself in disbelief, "What the fuck?"

I could easily admit that Eric had every right to be upset with me, but this was not only insane for Eric to have done but dangerously so. I hugged the pillows tighter to my chest and tried to regain my sanity. I couldn't change what he'd done, but I would keep trying until I found a way out. The day was passing quickly and my belief that I could to get out before sunset was fading as I realized that it would be harder to escape than I'd thought.

I rolled onto my back and listened to the thoughts surrounding me for a long time, and I learned a surprising amount about how Eric ran his Kingdom in the time that I focused on his minions. Apparently the entire top tier of his kingdom was absent, away at the summit for the next two weeks. "Oh Hell," I said out loud when I heard this information and the sound of my own voice made me jump. It was so silent down here that any sound was shocking.

Two weeks. Well, Eric had said he'd be back as soon as he could so it might not be that long. He'd also said that I would be well provided for, whatever the fuck that meant, so unless he was trying to starve me, I would need food. I carefully made my way to the kitchen to search for something to eat. The refrigerator was well stocked with basic foods and the freezer was chock full of frozen dinners. I grabbed an apple and a banana and made a quick snack. I would have to put a little more effort into preparing a meal if I wanted to regain my strength, but this would do for now. I rinsed the apple and took a healthy bite as I wandered over to the wall again. This time, I wasn't as careful when I placed my fingertip on the iron surface. The contact of my finger on the iron stung, but didn't burn, and for the first time since Eric left me in here, I smiled with hope.

I set out getting to know my greater prison area and made a mental tally of each item I found. Like MacGyver, I might be able to build a bomb or a ladder with dental floss and peanut butter or something like that. I shook my head, simultaneously amused by and worried about my sanity and the fact that I was reliving shows I used to watch with Gran and Jason on our small TV in the living room of our childhood home.

One of Gran's favorite quotes from MacGyver was, "You can't just talk about your problems: you have to look for solutions." I chuckled at the thought, understanding her words in a very different way now that I had been a mother. Really she was saying in the kindest way possible that I needed to quit whining and make the best out of any situation...and so I would.

Over the next few hours, as I continued to explore the room around me, still looking for trap doors and hidden exits, I was delighted to find that I was feeling stronger and that I had the most wonderful memories of Gran down here in the dark with nothing else to distract me. I was once again smiling as I remembered her gentle touch, unconditional love and unbending rules of propriety and manners. She was a woman who knew who she was and what she expected from herself and others. She never tolerated self-pity or whining and I know that I got my strength from her.

She would look at me sitting here naked in the kitchen eating a banana and say,_ 'Sookie Stackhouse, you get some clothes on your bare bottom, brush your hair and eat like the lady you are. You never know when someone will call at the door, and you would scare away the neighbor's cat looking the way you do right now young lady_.'

I laughed out loud, once again startling myself. "Okay Gran, I'll get on that right away," I said to the darkness as I finished the banana and made my way to the bedroom. I found some of Eric's T-shirts in a drawer and was able to fold a pair of soft sweat pants down once, bend a few inches of the waistband in and then fold them down again to make them stay up well enough to feel comfortably covered. I was cold and the soft material felt good, so I also found a huge sweater and a pair of socks, which I pulled up almost to my knees.

I tried to use my powers to tame my hair, but I knew that the glamor abilities I had honed in Britlin were sky fairy based, so I gave up quickly. I found that I was feeling much better and that I was actually enjoying confirming what powers came from which genetic source, and I realized that I truly must be twisted to find anything to appreciate in this situation.

I felt around until my fingers encountered a brush in a bathroom drawer, wandered out into the living room, sat in the soft leather chair and went to work on the rat's nest on my head. Luckily, Eric's shampoo seemed to have knocked most of the waves out of my hair so it was more manageable, but still I had to work for quite a while to get out all the knots, having crashed into bed with wet hair. I should have just showered again, but found some relief in having a familiar task to complete.

When I finished taming my hair, I asked my only company for her approval, "Will this do Gran?"

_'For the time being honey, it seems to be the best you can do for now. Good girl.'_

I sat back in the deep chair and began the hypnotic task of slowly pulling hair from the brush.

"Did you know? Did you ever know that we weren't yours?" I asked the ringing silence.

_'Oh Sweetheart, I didn't know, but it wouldn't have made any difference. I was their mother, just as I was your grandmother in the only way that really mattered.'_

Those words…they brought back memories of something Eric said not long before I left…that I was his wife in the only way that mattered to him.

"What do you mean?" I asked the air.

_'Come now Sookie, you are not a feeble-minded woman. If I'm not your biological grandmother, why do you still call me Gran?'_

I was an idiot. "Because you loved me, cared for me, protected me from life and especially from Uncle Bartlett. You helped me to learn to accept myself, to try and love myself even though I was defective and you taught me to see through every one's hurtful and ugly surface thoughts to find the real person, so I could have at least a few friends. You gave me hope and I loved…I still love you," I said with a thick voice.

_'It doesn't matter that we aren't related through blood anymore?' _she asked.

"No, of course not," my heart broke a little as I connected the dots.

Had Eric been trying to tell me that he didn't need a minister or a court to declare that we were married because in his mind, the only thing that mattered was the love we felt for one another? It was always hard to tell with him, since he constantly downplayed his emotions, but I know now that he wouldn't have married me in the eyes of the vampire world if he hadn't truly loved me. So maybe having me hand him that knife simply gave something he already felt and that he knew I felt, our connection, our love, and our devotion to one another, a formal title…married. Perhaps instead of using the marriage as a weapon of defense, as I had assumed and hated, maybe it truly was a gift from his heart.

I felt sick, and not from the iron. Now that I was formally a member of the supernatural community, I understood the need to break from traditional human norms and occasionally human values. How Eric put up with my stubbornness and small mindedness I would never know, but I was pretty sure love had a lot to do with it. Love was the only thing that would have overcome how amazingly obtuse and insulting I'm now sure I was. Time and again, I had insulted his culture and his traditions. He certainly could have handled things better himself with the marriage situation, but then, I could have too.

"I've messed up so much Gran," I admitted to the darkness.

_'You've had some very hard choices to make, but I believe that you did the best you could for yourself and for Hunter. We all doubt our decisions Dear, it's part of being alive, and it makes life interesting,' _she mused_._

I gave a biter little laugh, interesting…well that was one way to put it. Still, it was good to hear that she agreed with my choices, knowing that she had faced some hard ones in her life too. "I wish you could have shared your experiences with me, I would have understood," I said sadly. "We were both so alone, maybe it would have helped to have someone else to share the insanity with once in a while."

_'You had so much to burden you already; I didn't want to add to the weight you carried. I'm sorry if it would have helped you to talk about it, but I don't think it would have helped me sweetheart. Have you found someone else to share with honey? You're carrying more of a burden now than ever, and it has been such a very long time.'_

"No," I said and my voice betrayed me as it cracked, "I had Hunter to care for when he was little and we shared more as he grew, but he's making his own life now. I have to let him go. It's right to let him go."

_'Yes, you do Dear. You were a good mother to him and a good mother knows when to let her young ones go.'_

I nodded sadly, "I have Macey, Pua and Larry who I can kind of talk to now that I'm home, and Jason is amazingly accepting of me, I think because of Carrie Grace. But I'm still learning what and who I am, and they can't tell them too much. Other than them, and Hunter…I'm alone." Then I laughed bitterly, "Well, of course I'm alone now, but what I mean is that I'm alone in life. I was hoping…I still hope…" I shook my head in frustration, not able to voice my deepest dreams and desires, "but I think that's the way it has to be for me. I have to depend on myself. The last time I was here I was foolish and weak, and I looked to others to solve my problems," I shrugged, "I can't and I won't do that any more."

_'Don't you belittle or pity yourself Sookie, I won't stand for it young lady. You've always done the best you could in each moment,'_ she snapped and I smiled again. '_Being with someone doesn't mean you have to lean on them in an unhealthy way. Yes, you were eager to grab hold of the vampires who offered you the peace and quiet that you had never known, but you've had time to think and to grow into a stronger, more capable woman so you won't have to hold on so tightly anymore. But dependency on someone is different from being part of a healthy team in a relationship.'_

"Look at where I am Gran. Look where he put me. I'm in a gilded-prison. While he's off," I took a shuddering breath, "risking his life for something that I did. He doesn't trust me, how could we ever be part of a team if he doesn't trust me?"

_'Do you really know what he's doing Sookie? Do you understand everything about the situation?'_

"No, because he didn't tell me anything, as usual!"

_'And at which point did you give him the time to tell you?' _she asked gently but still making her point very clearly. When I didn't answer, she continued,_ 'You can't go rushing in to dangerous situations without understanding things anymore Sookie. You are too powerful and too smart to do that.'_

I frowned, she sounded like my most demanding Britlingin instructor, Brynum. He had been disturbed by my impatience and frequently had me take on the form of a three-toed sloth to learn about energy-conservation and patience. It was a form I never would have selected on my own, but that I enjoyed very much once I adapted to it. I could see the value in his lessons now that I was in Louisiana and could pull less energy from the land. I needed to expend my energy with great care since I burned through it so quickly when I used my abilities.

I grimaced when I thought that Brynum would definitely approve of Eric forcing me to wait here rather than rushing off into vampire business I didn't understand, but I didn't want to agree with Eric's actions, I needed to make my own decisions. How did he know that I wouldn't agree to stay hidden away and after he had given me all the facts? He just assumed that I would go running into danger without even giving me a chance to think things through. Maybe he was right now, and I should stay away, but it should still be my choice to make, or at least something we should have decided together. But Gran was right, our timing had been just awful.

_'Sookie, you know that you've found your love, now find your balance. Never forget to find your balance in life.'_

Balance. Eric and I definitely hadn't found balance in the few years we had known one another. If we could work this out together, if he could get his head out of his ass and see he didn't have to protect me all the time, and if I could control my fear and temper, we could finally move forward. I constantly felt like I was in quicksand with him, everything around us was always pulling us down and apart. We just needed some time where it was the two of us, with no one else barging in to mess things up for us.

I hoped that we got that chance because I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to find a way out of here. So all I could do was pray that he fared well at the summit and returned to me safely and that we each survived the other's wrath because no matter how much we rationalized our actions, we were both had the right to be absolutely furious with the other.

"Thanks Gran, you always knew how to get me out of a mood."

_'Good, now get up and make yourself a proper meal, and you'll feel much better.'_

I smiled and nodded, "Yes, ma'am," and I got up to follow her commands. "Oh, by the way, if you could spare a little light, I'd appreciate it," I said to the dark with a grin.

_'I wish I could honey, but you're learning to depend on yourself, right?'_ she teased.

I laughed out so loud that the sound rang trough my iron prison. "I love you Gran," I whispered sadly, feeling tears prickle at the corners of my eyes.

_'We love you too honey,' _she said and I could almost feel her hand stroke my hair down my back as she used to do when I was sad. I felt my back, but of course all I found was my hair and Eric's sweatshirt.

"You are going bat-shit crazy Sookie Stackhouse," I told myself while I made my first meal in my temporary residence.

E~

Three nights. I thought as I stepped into the unlined extrafine virgin wool suit pants designed by Miriam for this summit. Three fucking nights wasted with banal chatter and tiresome pomp and circumstance. Three nights that I could have been with Sookie, explaining my reasoning, learning about her life and having her…being with her in every way possible. I ground my teeth together, fastened the button at the waistband of the pants and carefully pulled the zipper up over my gracious plenty as my lover had enjoyed calling my manhood.

Three fucking nights! Now instead of knocking the tardy Queen of California Sacramento down to size, I would utterly destroy her. Yes, she had her excuses to delay the trial, but I knew they were all lies; I had an ace up my sleeve. One I'd like to keep hidden if I could, but that I would use if needed. Fucking bitch. Who the hell did she think she was? No one kept the Ancient Pythoness waiting. I had rushed here, counting every second I had with Sookie so that I could make it to the plane with enough time for us to fly to Memphis and get to our resting places before sunrise. I had sent my light-tight limos to take us from the airfield to the secure garage of our temporary home, but thankfully they had not been needed.

The late, and by late I unfortunately don't mean finally deceased, Queen Wu of California Sacramento and her minion Sheriff Bradford of Oakland had pushed hard to have me specifically named as the culpable party responsible for the fae on vampire violence we had been seeing in the last decade. She'd had to manipulate so much because her claim was absolute bullshit, and I wasn't the only one who knew it. The only problem was that if there were enough members of Amun Clan who were against my style of leadership, which was very different from the norm, they could use this opportunity to take me down.

I took my black dress shirt off the hanger, slid my arms into the perfectly pressed sleeves and buttoned up the front. Pam was very worried about this trial and her concern had been eating at me through our bond ever since we were notified through formal Clan channels of the complaint brought by Wu and Bradford. I wasn't worried about Bradford, he was simply a puppet for Wu who had an extremely long history of pulling strings behind the scenes to achieve her political ends, but his hands were tied since he had to follow her commands or be liable of treason.

Wu Zhao, however was a formidable vampire and was almost fourteen hundred years old. She had been the Queen of California Sacramento for the last thirty years and given her history, I was sure that she had her eyes set on any new territory she thought she could get. Our states were strong, so she would have been a fool to try a frontal assault on Oklahoma or Louisiana and Freyda and I still held Arkansas and Nevada jointly, although they were now ruled by their own peer selected king and queen. These two states did not owe us fealty, they simply were held accountable to us for maintaining stability, and in return they received our conditional support and protection. After thirty-five more years, we would have to decide if we wanted to offer them provisional membership in our alliance or allow them to become completely autonomous from our oversight. As of now, things were going well enough that I was leaning toward keeping them in the fold, but only time would tell.

By setting her sights on me, I knew Wu was hoping to make four states unstable and ripe for the picking. She was a brilliant, albeit unethical politician and one that I would never turn my back on for even a second. Her greatest weakness was that her well-known history preceded her. She had already worn out her welcome in the vampire communities of China and much of Europe, and was on her way to earning a huge American boot to her ass, my boot to be exact, for her recent machinations.

If things went her way, I would be blamed for siding with the fae to the detriment of the vampire community and removed from power or given my final death if she could rile up the council enough or present a strong case to the Ancient Pythoness. I'd told Sookie the truth, this wasn't just about the deaths of the five team members in Oakland, but that was one of the two most notable occurrence of fae on vampire violence during the past decade and the events could be directly blamed on me.

I knotted the charcoal gray tie Mona had selected to go with my black suit and slipped into my dress shoes. I much preferred boots for quick maneuvering in a fight if needed, but tonight, there would be no fighting. If I were found guilty, I would accept all responsibility to clear my people of any wrongdoing and meet my end with dignity. There was no other option when a trial was overseen by the Ancient Pythoness. Others had attempted to fight and to escape, but always to no avail. I would never embarrass myself that way or put my people in danger by doing anything so cowardly.

I pulled the dark gray suit coat from the back of the chair where it was hanging, slid my arms into the sleeves and fastened the three front buttons. The last step to ready myself was to pull my hair back from my face. I secured it with a thin leather strap at the nape of my neck, and I was ready for a war that would be waged in a courtroom.

'Courtrooms' would be the more appropriate designation since I was also dealing with disputes with the makers of the two California Sacramento vampires who had been killed that night in Oakland in my extended service. My lawyers had already paid out what could be termed 'life and hazard insurance' to the makers and even to the children of the two vampires, but they wanted more from our state, which I was unwilling to give.

Sheriff Bradford had requested my assistance with his fae problem and I responded. He, and by extension, his people had no right to complain. This was one of the things I hated most about being king…precedent and tradition ceased to have any bearing when a greedy individual saw any chance to siphon some money from me personally and from my newly recovered and financially stable state.

I'm sure Queen Wu had fanned their discontent with the settlements and had 'encouraged' them to bring their complaints before the Clan. I would not even acknowledge those lawsuits by making an appearance; they would be attended and handled by Micah Haberstroh, my Sherriff of Area Two and the state's best vampire financial analyst and former Wall Street tycoon. I had no concerns regarding those lawsuits except for the fact that they made me look weak and unable to manage my own problems.

All these fucking idiots trying to take what was rightfully mine highlighted another reason I had to make sure that Sookie was safely tucked away until the summit was over. Unspoken threats loomed over her from every direction including these vampire idiots, Felipe, who I would never stop looking over my shoulder for and now and most threateningly Niall.

Niall had come to my headquarters without warning tonight, notably dressed for battle and was the reason I was late picking Sookie up from the club. There was no way I could bring her here if there was any chance that he was still somewhere nearby watching. He wasted my time, discussing marginally helpful information about the fairies on this side of the portal, under the guise of helping me prepare for the trial, but it was clear to me that he was fishing around for information about the scrios his people had scented and seen in Oakland. I had worked hard on developing a relationship with him, but now I was beginning to distrust his motives.

Ever since I had learned that Sookie was alive, in fact, ever since Sookie had killed the team of five in Oakland, Niall had been very present in my life after being removed and hard to reach. I had to wonder if he knew she was alive and returning to Louisiana, and if so, what he wanted from her and whether or not he knew her true identity from the report of the eyewitness in Oakland. Until I was completely sure of her safety, I would keep a close watch on her and keep her hidden from the public eye and especially from Niall.

One last check in the mirror told me I was dressed in a way that presented an appearance of strength and humility at the same time, just the chord I needed to strike for these proceedings. I glanced at my watch and saw that I was early. I wanted to make a united entrance and appear with all my supporters at my side when everyone else was ready. I knew that E(E)E usually designated the first two rows on both sides of the room for the key members of the parties involved in a major trial to be seated and I did not encourage them to do otherwise this time. Our people would file in, pay their tribute to me and then line the walls in a gesture of solidarity and strength.

As I waited for my contingent to gather, my mind, as it always did, wandered directly to Sookie. I was desperate to know what she was doing right now, but refused to look. I needed to keep focused and if she was upset, I would not be in top form for the trial. The first time I checked my phone, keying into the security system I had installed in the chamber, I had found her crying and it had taken me until the sunrise claimed me for the day to calm me down.

I was still amazed at how difficult it was to actually leave her down there after a year of planning to do so with no doubts or hesitations. I had never thought that it could be remotely possible that leaving her would be even more difficult than being left behind by her. I thought I had experienced the deepest emotional well of guilt when my errors and complacency had allowed her life to be snuffed out, but somehow, this was just as, if not even more difficult, but in a very different way. It must have been harder because I actually had a choice in the matter this time rather than having her railroad my future down my throat every fucking chance she got.

She said she hadn't been able to look back, was this why…because it was so hard to leave? Experiencing just a little piece of the pain of being the one who was leaving increased my amazement that she had ever managed to abandon her whole life and move on to a new one. I'd never imagined that she had it in her to leave, it just wasn't in her nature to turn her back on her loved ones. That coupled with her extreme attachment to her life and routines made her one of the least likely candidates for being a runner. I had my suspicions as to why she left, especially after meeting Hunter, but I had received nothing from her yet to convince me that I was right.

It was Hunter actually who gave me the idea to use the prison in my headquarters to contain her. The hours before he had stumbled out of the 'safe room' in which Sookie had imprisoned him and her other loved ones, he had been listening to my ruminations about wanting to get her somewhere that we could finally talk.

"If you really want her to talk to you, take her in there," he'd said as he pointed back into the safe room, "There's nothing like a week in the dark to help you do some serious soul searching."

At first I'd laughed but I quickly realized that this would be the perfect way to symbolically 'vent my spleen' as Pam put it, and I had the perfect place to take her. She had run from me for that last time, I'd had it all planned out and it wasn't supposed to be this hard. Once I finally found her, I had planned to get her to allow me to take her back to my rooms at the headquarters and then I would leave her in the fairy holding cell that I had begun re-designing in my mind the day that she left me a year ago, making it a comfortable living area.

Since the fae had moved west, the prison, which was really just used as a deterrent and had only seen one fairy for a very brief period of time, was no longer needed and it became my favorite space to occupy in the headquarters. Only Pam knew about this place, others thought I was out of the building whenever I disappeared down here. It was completely soundproof and I couldn't hear any voices or noises from the rest of the building, something I could never achieve in my other rooms. The peace was absolute and very welcome. As king I was constantly bombarded with demands and requests from ass-kissing liars, and I hated it. I'd dealt with it on a smaller scale as Sheriff, but this was constant and unrelenting.

The prison was a perfect secure sleeping chamber and no one questioned when it was sealed from the normal routes since our immediate fae problem had resolved and the prison was now obsolete. Now there were only two passable exits, and few could access them but myself. Even Pam needed help out since one door was two stories off the prison floor through my closet and the other was a long tunnel that led from the bedroom ceiling directly to the roof of the building.

Over the past year, when my anger was at its worst, I had planned on dropping her off in the renovated prison without a word of explanation. I had gleeful thoughts of letting her stay down there long enough to really give her a chance to think and to learn how it felt to be left behind when someone else took your light away. That's what she did when she left; she took the light out of my life. In fact, I had originally planned on leaving her in the iron-encased room for sixteen days, one day for each year that she took herself away from me. It hadn't mattered to me at that point that the prison had iron in it, I was confident that simply the design and the security measures would keep her confined.

Then she ran from me again after teleporting into my private rooms. Teleporting. Fuck. She must have developed that skill during the last year, because she definitely didn't have it the last time I saw her. I knew immediately that my prison probably wouldn't hold her because I didn't believe that she had enough fairy in her for the iron to suppress her ability to teleport. Then I realized that I might have a way to ensure that she stayed.

It is a very closely guarded secret that warm silver is much more potent and damaging to vampires than silver at room temperature. I'm not exactly sure why, but I believe that it has to do with the higher level of molecular activity of the warm silver causing the effects to spread more widely in a space. Simply being in the room with warm silver makes a vampire weak and I've had personal experience that has taught me that I lose my ability to fly when near warm silver, so I made the conjecture that the same would be true of iron and Sookie's ability to teleport.

I called my private contractors and had them install heating elements behind the iron in the main room and hallway. Sookie was only one-eighth fairy, and from our investigations of her property on Maui, I knew that iron didn't hurt her. She had even been wearing a necklace that was part iron and part silver, so I knew that the iron would have to be very hot to have even a slight effect on her. At the same time, I had the iron walls removed from what was now the bedroom to provide her with a safe haven if it was needed. I had to do this for her safety, but I was betting that the huge amount of warm iron nearby would still keep her down there even if the bedroom didn't have any in it.

I had spoken with Hunter at length about the amount of iron and the temperature she could be safely exposed to so that her teleporting would be suppressed, but she would remain otherwise unscathed. I included him in my planning primarily because he was the closest thing I had to an expert about Sookie and what she had become, and second because he was Sookie's cousin and I needed him on my side. Obviously Hunter was very concerned about exposing her to the iron, he explained that she had become sick on Oahu due to the molten lava, but the effects had been limited to flu-like symptoms and had resolved immediately and completely when she left the island. He agreed to allow me to hold her in my own 'safe room' as he called it, so long as she was monitored around the clock.

I didn't really understand his motivation to drive us together, but I wasn't one to cause trouble for myself when things were going well, or 'look a gift horse in the mouth' as Sookie used to say, so I didn't pry as to his intentions. I knew that he had witnessed firsthand through reading my thoughts, the devastation I suffered while in Hana, so I'm sure that was at least part of why he supported me in finding any safe way to ensure that Sookie and I had our chance to talk. The plan stood that he would observe her during the daylight hours and Pam or I would keep watch over her during the evening. He would also cover for us when we were busy at the summit and so far he had held up his end of the responsibilities and then some since we had been so busy these last three nights.

His idea to monitor her closely was one I had already implemented, more for my own curiosity's sake, but now that I was deliberately trying to change the environment to weaken her, it was something that was essential for her safety. I installed even more microphones and cameras, infrared and regular so that we could catch everything that occurred while she was down there to make sure she was safe and comfortable. We would have the ability to adjust the temperature of the heating elements and thus the iron, and even open the door remotely if needed.

Even though I thought it was a good idea to have remote access to the systems and such invasive monitoring, I still didn't believe that it would be necessary, so I was caught off guard when she was taken ill so immediately upon entering the space. My intense concern had me throwing all caution to the wind and calling out loudly to Hunter or Pam to turn down the temperature. Luckily Sookie either hadn't heard me or was unable to really pay attention to what was happening around her, because she would be absolutely furious the second she realized that I had her under surveillance. I knew I'd have to face her wrath for my many transgressions, but this was the one I was sure she would be most irate about, but still I followed my plan, well aware of the price I could pay later.

All these plans that I had laid out, had been clear cut before I had her in my arms, before her scent and her body called to me, and before I received the texts from Pam telling me that Sookie was in a bad place emotionally from the damage I had inflicted on her in Maui. I wasn't surprised by the last, no one could be expected to come out of that unscathed, but I hated that she had been suffering this last year without me by her side to help her work through it all. This was something we had to do together. At least it explained the way she had been running from me.

Despite her fears, she came with me and she sighed with relief when I took her into my private rooms. I had removed the wards from around my bedroom, something I should had done over a week ago, and as she melted into my body, I weakened. She felt so warm and soft against my chest and her scent, although blocked, still clung to her clothes and hair. That was another new skill, and a very important one for her to have; she hadn't been able to block her scent a year ago. Only the silver hair ornaments she had placed in her long, curling tresses kept me from burying my nose in her scent. But it was a quick glance at the clock that had me strengthening my resolve and moving swiftly to the newly installed hidden panel in my closet. I was eager to learn more about her and her abilities and hated with a passion that I had to go to the summit, but I had been called to defend myself at the trial with only a few days to prepare. Queen Wu was nothing if not cunning and she had caught me at a bad time, almost not giving me enough time to prepare my defense.

As it was, it took all of my will to set Sookie down on the floor, pull her fingers from my shirt and fly back up to the door into my closet. Thankfully I was still entering the code to open the door when she collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. I felt terror run through my body at the thought that I might have caused her serious harm, and returned to her as quickly as I was able. I was immensely relieved when I moved her to the iron-free and unheated bedroom, and watched as she immediately recovered.

So I had given her the bare essentials about what was happening, no longer having the heart to leave her there without a word and left to face my accusers. Sookie had been so upset with me for not allowing her to take part in my defense, but her presence would have done nothing but cause more problems and keep me so wound up with concern for her safety that I wouldn't even be able to think straight. I couldn't imagine the vying and political jockeying that would occur among the powerful of the Amun Clan to get her under their control, or simply to suck her dry. Some would even want to destroy her simply to keep me from having her as part of my retinue. I couldn't even imagine how bad it would get if word got out that she could read vampire minds. I thought back to how fragile and easily injured she had been once I had weakened her enough and I groaned when I remembered her eager willingness to give her own life for Hunter, Pam and I. I would not allow her to be hurt again…ever. The mere thought of seeing her in pain and so near death at my hands still destroyed me.

She would demand to be given her freedom once I returned to her and I knew without any doubt that I would have no choice but to allow it. But if I had anything to say about it, her re-introduction to the supernatural world would be slow and occur away from a larger gathering of vampire eyes, not at the damn Amun summit. I would handle this trial and return to her so that I could get my answers and then we could begin our lives together as we should have been doing for the last sixteen years.

Noises from outside my door brought me back to my more immediate problem. I compartmentalized my thoughts about Sookie; closing them in a well-used vault I kept just for her and thus freed my mind for the trial.

I opened the door and was met by the rest of my retinue who had gathered here in the four-bedroom suite we had arranged to hold all of our clothing and needed items for the evenings even though we were resting elsewhere. I scanned around the room to see that our party, which consisted of Pam, my five Sheriffs, Solveig, Micah, Thalia, Henry and Maxwell and of course my heads of security James, Will and Sheila. I noted that Pam was in the process of taking her Bluetooth out of her ear, sending a text and closing a video screen on her phone. She has just transferred responsibility of monitoring Sookie's well-being to Hunter, and then she sent me reassurance through our bond; Sookie is safe. A small bit of tension relaxed in my chest and I continued to look around the room.

Freyda was also present with her entire retinue and she gave me a small smile. She was not worried in the least about these proceedings, but I did not have the luxury of taking that stance, too many people were depending on me to do anything but give it my full attention.

The rest of our security team, was already downstairs or in the hallway and my day assistant, Mona Phillips and my resident witch, Maeve Greene were back at the house I had rented on the outskirts of Memphis, having spent the day working on projects I had assigned to them. Many members of my security team and Mona and Maeve had traveled ahead of time to Memphis to prepare the residence and our suites and examine the hotel the King of Tennessee, Scott McKenna had selected for the site of this year's summit. All reports from the advance team reassured me that the increased security measures that had been put in place after Rhodes were being followed ruthlessly.

I acknowledged my people with a simple nod of my head, and followed James out the door to go downstairs to the trial.

"Game fucking on," I heard Sheila mutter.

I ignore her comment since she's a Were and it's a common phrase for her to use in tense situations, but I appreciate the sentiment.

California Sacramento was going to regret that she ever set her eyes on Louisiana and her allies, I would make sure of it.

0-0-0-0-0-0

A/N: This is a bit of a history lesson, so skip it if you aren't interested.

According to Wikipedia,** "**Wu Zhao was the only woman in the history of China to assume the title of Empress Regnant. As de facto ruler of China first through her husband and her sons from 665 to 690, not unprecedented in Chinese history, she then broke all precedents when she founded her own dynasty in 690, the Zhou (interrupting the Tang Dynasty), and ruled personally under the name Sacred and Divine Empress Regnant and variations thereof from 690 to 705. Her rise and reign has been criticized harshly by Confucian historians but has been viewed in a different light after the 1950s."

She sounds like a terrifying but efficient leader and I've decided not to change her name, because I like the idea of highlighting one of history's most notable female leaders.

One of her quotes, and I am amazed at the historical records there seem to be from that time, she was just a 'lady in waiting' to the Emperor when she said in regards to a wild stallion, "I only need three things to subordinate it: an iron whip, an iron hammer, and a sharp dagger. I will whip it with the iron whip. If it does not submit, I will hammer its head with the iron hammer. If it still does not submit, I will cut its throat with the dagger." From some of the information on Wikipedia, she appears to have done just that with many of her human opponents.

She was a tough woman and Eric clearly focuses on the negative side of her history since she is after him personally, but she was known as a very capable ruler. Wikipedia also says, "She grasped the powers of punishment and award, controlled the state, and made her own judgments as to policy decisions. She was observant and had good judgment, so the talented people of the time also were willing to be used by her."

What a great vampire she would be!


	29. Chapter 29

A/N: Thank you to all of you who shared your passionate responses to this story, I'm amazed at what it is bringing out in everyone.

A huge shout out of thanks to my beta (Yes, it's a first for me) Charhamblin! Thank you for sparing me the hours of proof-reading!

All errors are still mine and the characters still belong to Charlaine Harris.

In this chapter, Sookie's emotions will be ping-ponging all over the place and there's a reason for that so just hang on for the ride and give her a little license for feeling things that might not make sense right away. I promise that there is a reason for all of this and it is an essential bit of information for the distant future (if I can take the story that far.)

So please hang on and just go for the ride with our characters, they don't know what's going on either so you're not alone! I did a little foreshadowing of her emotional swings in the last chapter which some reviewers (charhamblin before she became my beta) very aptly pointed out could be confused with 'Stockholm Syndrome' or the behavior of an abused wife. That's so not what's happening, but the initial appearance could be misconstrued as such.

Chapter 29

Incomplete

S~

Gran was right, I felt better after I had eaten one of the prepared meals of some kind of fish in a mushroom sauce from the freezer, and really that was surprising to me. I figured that I would always feel weaker in this space as opposed to when I was hiding away in the bedroom, but I was sick of the bedroom and I really enjoyed feeling better. I still couldn't teleport, but I felt good now…and strong, so I figured that things could only go up from here.

I'd been stuck down here 24 hours. I knew from the petering out of the vampire brains upstairs and the lack of presence of the humans on my floor that it was still dark out, and a check with a Were guard told me that it was 4:45 AM.

The first night of the summit had ended, and I knew that I really should be stressed and worried about what had happened, but the longer I was down here, the harder it was for me to care about whatever happened there. In fact, as the hours plugged on, my motivation for getting out of here decreased while my interest in exploring my sera fae abilities increased exponentially. Somehow, in the midst of this unbelievably messed up situation, I was beginning to have some real fun.

I was even starting to identify some nebulous shapes in the room from time to time and I was thrilled that my vision was adapting to the dark. Being able to see even a tiny bit made the burden of being down here much less intense, and my need to escape faded along with it.

Seriously, what was the point of trying to get out anyway? Pam was probably right; I wouldn't be of help to Eric at the summit. I'd pop to his side in the middle of a major secret meeting and all hell would break out as a hundred vampires tried to get a bite of me at the same time. I giggled at the thought of two hundred eyes narrowing and two hundred fangs running out as they all tried to catch the stupid sera fae who just presented herself to them like a Thanksgiving turkey. Seriously, you can't tell me that the sight of a hundred vampires dressed to the nines diving at one scrumptious morsel of food wouldn't be at least a little bit funny.

I wondered what impact my defenses would have on that many vampires. Would I be able to take them down from afar as I did to the Weres in Oakland or would I have to touch them like I did the two vampires? I imagined being attacked by a whole room full of vampires and reflexively my hands shot out and deployed a stream of fire.

"Holy shit!" I screamed and I ducked when I heard what must have been the television exploding. Talk about a barbecue! I'd at least have a fighting chance with this enhanced firepower; it was wild! But of course, if I could teleport to the summit I probably wouldn't have these wickedly improved capabilities at my disposal. I certainly wasn't this strong in general, even in the midst of all my training, and that sucked because this was incredible.

I sniffed at the air when a strange taste settled thickly on my tongue and the smell of fried electronics filled my nose and mouth. It was better than the smell of barbecued vampire would be, but through that odor I detected another stench that was worse than either.

I sniffed again, grimacing when I realized that it was coming from the kitchen. Reluctantly, I followed the disgusting smell to the table and gagged when I came upon the hours old cup of milk and the salmon and mushroom sauce dish I had microwaved for my first dinner. This shouldn't smell so bad after only a few hours to stew at just above room temperature, but it sure did.

I picked up the plate, now convinced that my night vision was improving; I could see the white paper plate, but not the dark brown table.

There was only one thing to do with the putrid remains of my dinner; I couldn't stomach the idea of dumping them into the garbage can I'd felt under the sink, since they would still smell. So I took the offending paper cup and plate and made my way, almost easily toward the bedroom.

On the way, I saw something white and rectangular on the floor. I bent down and reached out my free left hand to pick it up, but my fingers encountered something in the way. I quickly discerned that this was the table that had held my ill-fated lamp and only source of light that I had knocked over during my first few minutes down here.

That was just my luck, right? Why hadn't Eric put the freaking light on a more stable surface, rather than on a rickety old table in a tiny hallway? Stupid perfectly coordinated vampires wouldn't ever think about the possibility of bumping into a table, much less not being able to catch the lamp before it hit the ground.

I pushed the useless table aside and picked up what turned out to be a piece of paper and took it into the bedroom. I closed the door behind me to isolate the smell from the kitchen and went directly into the bathroom.

Using a combination of my emerging sight and careful touch, I put the paper on the counter and aimed the putrid remains of my dinner into the toilet. I gagged again when I wiped the sauce from the plate with toilet paper. How had I ever put this in my mouth? It was so unbelievably disgusting!

I went over the plate again with wet toilet paper and flushed it all down and closed the lid. I then fled the bathroom, remembering at the last minute to grab the paper from the counter. With a sigh I crashed down on the soft chair in the bedroom and squinted as I tried to make out what was written on the paper. It was no use; I couldn't see a word, if there were any. I held my left hand as far away from me as I could and willed a little fire to form in my palm. Keeping the paper away from the flame, I waited for my eyes to adjust so I could read what was written on the page in a scrawl I hadn't seen for over 16 years.

The sight Eric's familiar cramped writing brought back memories of the other notes he had left for me in the past. I hadn't kept any of them when I left home but I still remembered how I'd treasured each one. I was tempted to hold the letter close to my chest to try to bring back our old love rather than read it, or maybe I should simply rip it up right now before he could impose his will on me again through his words.

I shook myself out of my melancholy mood and read the note.

_Sookie-_

_The lighting and electronics in this chamber are voice controlled. The system's name is Victor. Simply enter a room and preface any command you have, "Lights on, off or dim with his name."_

_Eric_

Lights. Holy crap. I've been banging around down here in the dark all this time and there were lights available to me with just a few words. Crap.

"Victor, turn on the lights," I said, and I had to smile saying it, remembering clearly the last interaction I had with him at his bar. My smile disappeared in a grimace of pain when the lights blazed on, blinding me temporarily. "Dim the lights!" I shouted, nothing happened, "Dammit Victor, dim the lights!" He finally complied and the lights dimmed some. I had to repeat my command two more times to get it through his thick head that I wanted the light at a just barely noticeable level. Since I was seeing better in the absolute dark, I really didn't need much, but this allowed me to see more clearly, and with significantly less effort.

I sat there for a while, shaking my head at the thought of Eric still getting back at Victor. I liked the idea of having a little of my own retribution against Victor, and this was a fun way of doing it. I could imagine Eric sitting here and naming the system, it was classic Eric to try and dominate someone who had threatened him, even after they were finally dead.

I surveyed the room, taking in the dark blue comforter, the maroon chair and green pillowcases. Simply being in here made me feel closer to Eric. At this thought, I felt my mood shift dramatically, almost as though someone had opened a door and released all my darker and unfortunately more authentic emotions. My chest felt heavier and frustration surged through me when I reviewed the events that had led to my sitting in this chair alone rather than being back home in Hana with friends and family or with Eric at the summit.

I knew that I would be just fine if I went to the summit, it had been absurd to think that I would be attacked by a horde of blood lusting vampires, that thought had been ridiculous. I mean, come on, I could block my scent now. Nobody would even know I was fae. I'd passed as a full human for years now without any problems, even Weres didn't have clue, and that was before I could block my scent. I could even present myself as a Britlingen if I needed and if I could manage to pull together the armor I needed for the look and the almost impenetrable protection.

I don't know why I let my imagination get the best of me before, but I was much more grounded now and it was time to get back to work trying to get out of here. I used the light to explore the upper walls and the ceiling that I hadn't been able to see or touch before. I quickly located an electronic security panel on the ceiling, well above the center of the bedroom. I was sure that it must open a panel up there that I couldn't see from down here.

Well that was it, Eric only needed two exits and having found one in the main room and another in the bedroom, I knew that would be enough to ensure his safe escape from here. He wouldn't have too many exits, redundancy was in his nature; overkill was not.

I wandered back into the bathroom, feeling my mood plummeting even deeper from the almost high I'd felt before. "Victor, turn on the lights," I demanded, and found to my surprise that there was no mirror in the room. I did find a new blue toothbrush and my favorite toothpaste. I also discovered a shelf with products I had used when I was in Bon Temps, from lotions to bubble bath and soaps. He even had a huge box of tampons there for me.

Fantastic.

The man really knew me.

Instead of feeling grateful for the efforts he had made, I was irritated that he'd put so much thought into what I would need while in here for the long term.

In fact, I was becoming more irritated and anxious with Eric and this whole freaking situation. When the hell would he come back? I checked with the minds around me again, it was daylight and the humans had started arriving in the building. They were awake and active now, but somewhere in Memphis, Eric was sleeping…I hoped.

I grabbed at my hair and pulled it back into a ponytail, trying to calm myself. If he hadn't already faced his accusers, he would most certainly do so tonight. Anxiety, coupled with frustration and a growing ball of anger ate at my nerves. God, I was like Sybil in here. I wasn't a person who flip-flopped around without knowing what I wanted or how I felt, so I simply needed to settle down and get a grip.

I placed some shampoo and conditioner on the edge of the bath along with a soap that reminded me of Gran and then returned to the living room. On my way, I saw the note again, but this time I noticed a little arrow on the bottom right corner. I sighed deeply, feeling a deep sadness forming in my chest, before I turned the page over and read it.

_Sookie-_

_The remote controls activate the televisions. Just say, "Victor, activate TV." He will also open the closets where you will find clothing appropriate for you._

_Eric_

"Thanks jerk," I grumbled and then I said more clearly, "Victor, open the closet." There was a quiet hum and a panel to the left of the bathroom that I hadn't found earlier moved in a few inches and then slid to the left, revealing a deep, dark closet.

I entered just a little, not trusting that the door wouldn't close behind me and told Victor to turn on the lights. He followed my command and the lights flicked on, revealing a large, walk-in closet with men's clothing on the left and women's on the right. The closet's attention to detail, if not style, just screamed of Pam.

I gave Eric's clothes an angry glare, ripped off his baggy sweat pants and shirt and grabbed a pair of stretchy shorts and a loose fitting t-shirt from my side of the closet. I was thankful that Pam had honored my more relaxed sense of style rather than using this opportunity to dress me like a Barbie doll. She probably wanted to escape my wrath when I finally got the hell out of here, but if she'd had any part in planning this mess, she didn't have a prayer.

'Trust him,' she'd said to me earnestly, trust him indeed. Look what trusting him got me, and where.

I pulled on a pair of socks that didn't droop around my ankles and then, dressed to tackle the world, I stormed out of the room, ordered Victor to turn on and dim the lights and spent the next few minutes visually exploring the kitchen and living room. A thorough study of the kitchen told me that all the utensils were plastic, not just the ones I'd found earlier. All the cups and plates were paper and even the glass plate in the microwave was missing. I had noticed a few of these things during my earlier search and while preparing my meal, but this knowledge combined with the fact that all the food was cut into small pieces, nothing in here was wood and the mirror in the bathroom was missing told me that Eric had removed anything that could be easily used as a weapon.

Whether he was trying to stop me from hurting him or myself by removing the weapons, it was another sign that he didn't know me anymore. I didn't need a weapon to defend myself; I was a weapon all on my very own.

I made a quick survey of the living room to search for more notes, but I guess there weren't any more surprises waiting for me, unless Victor could help me in other ways.

"Victor," I said, "open the door," nothing happened.

"Victor, activate the phone, Victor, call Pam…Victor, activate the computer…Victor, call security," nope, nada, nothing.

I was starting to enjoy the challenge even though my efforts weren't making any impact as of yet.

"Victor," I paused, debating what to say next, and then I got smart, "Öppna luckan," I said excitedly, but nothing happened. "Victor, lås upp dörr…Victor, låt mig ut…Victor, utgång, Victor…" but I couldn't think of anything else that Eric might have used. I stared up at the door, completely focused and feeling a lot better than I had while I was stewing over Eric's note.

"Victor, dra åt helvete…Victor, du är en avskyvärd gris**…**Victor, kyss mig i röven…Victor, bitta mig." I giggled at the idea of saying those things to him and I could almost see his sleazy smile fading and his true colors showing through the disgustingly happy façade he always wore.

When I thought about the fact that I had once knocked him on his ass, I wished that I had used a stake rather than my shoulder to do so. I wondered for a moment how things would have turned out for us if Victor had disappeared that night. It could have gone either way, depending on Felipe's response.

Whatever, they were both finally dead…I had no doubt at all. If Eric had taken over the state through violence as Pam said he had, Victor and Felipe would have been at the top of his list of heads he would want to roll. No, I was absolutely sure that they were both finally and totally dead.

I spent the rest of the day, playing around with various methods of getting Victor to bend to my will. I found that although I could control the lights, the one working television, the radio, an audio system that would play whatever category of music I wanted and the internal doors with English or Swedish, I couldn't find any verbal command that would open the outer doors

I wandered from room to room, and eventually learned that when I wanted to relax, I had to be in the bedroom, but this came with a heavy price. My time in the bedroom was fraught with worries, anger and a nagging need to get out of my prison. I hated feeling like this, my emotions were too raw and there was no outlet for them in here, my emotions needed another person to validate them even if they were simply there to be on the receiving end of my venomous attitude.

So I spent most of my time in the main rooms. Here, I felt incredible, full of energy, strength and power, but a little out of control too. My emotions, too rich and true in the bedroom were muted, volatile and governed more by an innate driving force of my body and reflexes out here in the living room and kitchen. I felt as though I was under the influence of some substance, stronger than alcohol and although I enjoyed feeling so carefree and absolutely powerful, it scared me once I returned to the bedroom and was able to think more clearly.

As I started my third day in isolation, it was hard to get myself to go into the bedroom at all. Of course I had to go in there to use the bathroom, shower and change my clothing, but I did all those things as quickly as possible and then left the space right away. The weight of my true emotions was just too much; I preferred the escape I received in the outer rooms.

I played around with a variety of animal forms and found that a bobcat was the perfect size for playing around in this smaller space I had. I started running around the room, then jumping over furniture and finally I sprung up onto the leather chair and jumped to the couch, probably an eight foot jump. That gave me an idea. I jumped from surface to surface, making sure not to touch the ground, like Jason and I used to do in the living room when Gran was out. Jason was always able to make it to Gran's chair since he was taller than I was, but I had been able to carefully climb on her side table since I was lighter and smaller. That pastime had ended when Gran caught us one day, but today I had no such constraints on my actions and I nudged the furniture farther and farther apart until I was just barely able to grab my claws into the leather to catch my weight. The leather made a satisfying popping or ripping sound each time my claws caught found their purchase.

In a moment of absolute joy I ran along the couch and jumped all the way to the kitchen table. I made it, but then I slid across the surface since there was nothing for me to grab onto and the whole thing crashed to the floor, tossing me down with it. I jumped up, back in my original form, reset the table and tried the leap a dozen or more times.

Now I was reclining against the wall on the carpet, where I had deposited myself after my last failed attempt at the jump. What used to be the kitchen table was now in the corner, looking like nothing but a pile of twisted metal.

I felt as relaxed and carefree as I used to on a warm sunny day, sprawled out watching the clouds and trees sway in the breeze. I had to pee but the thought of going into the bedroom made me uncomfortable. It was really strange that the one space I had fled to before now made me feel weak and incomplete.

'Incomplete!' I sat up straighter.

I was incomplete.

That's what Pele's son had said to me…'incomplete, useless and weak,' and that's how I felt when I was in the bedroom and when I imagined how I was in the real world.

When Eric first brought me down here, I felt the pain and weakness associated with the sky fairy part of me being silenced by the iron. After a while, I no longer felt pain, instead my sera fae based abilities became stronger and more powerful, and so did I.

Is this how I would feel if I didn't have any sky fairy in me? Is this why Pele's son thought I was the runt of the litter? If it was, then he was absolutely right.

The sky fairy in me weakened what could be so powerful. It held me back and weighed me down. My God, I was defective if this is how I should always feel.

I'd always thought that I was disabled by my telepathy, but this, this sky fairy in me was my true disability. It gave me the ability to teleport, and according to Pele, it helped me to resist falling into the sera fae patterns of anger, jealousy and impulsivity by helping me to maintain my more human emotions and patterns of behavior. She had seen that as a positive thing, and at the time I met her, so had I, but now I knew how much the fairy in me held back my strength, fire, energy and this overwhelming attitude of absolute possibility I felt surging through my every cell when out here surrounded by the iron.

What would I be without this fairy-based disability? I definitely wouldn't be dragging around the emotional baggage I had as a human/fairy or fairy/sera fae hybrid. I could really relate to Pele's son and his attitude toward my genetic makeup. I could also still feel the power he exuded, even after all this time. Where before, I had been terrified by him, now I was drawn to him, and at the moment my greatest wish when I got out of here was to return to Oahu and see just how I would feel near the molten lava. It had to be so much more intense than even this was, and I craved it.

If I could somehow permanently silence the sky fairy in me, I could go to Oahu and I would finally have a home, a community of my own, and such incredible power that no one would ever think of hurting or threatening Hunter or me ever again.

I looked down at my hands and saw that I was glowing and my hands were shaking with desire for more, more of this incredible high I felt in here.

This certainly explained why I was so drawn to this space. If I was now predominately sera fae, with my weaker fairy side being thankfully silenced, it made sense that I would be pulled to the iron, especially warm iron to gain even more strength.

My eyes were drawn to the wall opposite me as exciting ideas ran through my mind. Without really thinking about it, I shot my hands out in front of me, pushing hard from my core and sent a line of fire across the room. The fire hit the opposite wall and burned bright red. Immediately I felt the heat embrace me and although a part of me screamed in pain, I welcomed it as the dominant part of my being reveled in the almost immediate surge of power I felt running through my body like an electric current. I moaned out loud at the combination of pain and power, and then stopped and tilted my head back even farther, feeling a smile spread across my lips. I took three deep breaths, inhaling the thick, hot air and felt my head spin and then right itself.

I opened my eyes again; fully intent on my task. I raised my arms higher and aimed for the door well above me and pushed again, harder than I ever had before. The fire shot out more forcefully this time and hit the door in a blast of red and white sparks which cooled before they hit the ground. I maintained the stream of fire as long as I could and then collapsed back against the wall again, exhausted but excited. The door was still red when I shifted into a hummingbird and flew up to inspect the iron to determine if I had caused any damage, but the door stood strong and unmarred.

I returned to the ground, and shifted back to my own form. I wouldn't be getting out that way, I'd have to wait until Eric returned and opened the door. He didn't know I could fully shift and I would be able to fly right out of here when he arrived. The hope of getting out and to Oahu boosted my already high spirits. I made a quick trip to the bathroom and then ordered Victor to crank up some music from the last decade. The first song was Kevin Rudolph and Lil Wayne's 'Let it Rock' and I continued enjoying myself, exploring the awesomeness of my sera fae powers when the pathetically weak fairy in me didn't weigh me down.

In the next few hours, my eyes and body grew stronger. I was sure that I was almost as strong as Eric now if not stronger, and I tested my strength by crushing some of the items in his living room one by one and leaving them in a pile for him to find when he returned.

I ran around the rooms as fast as I could and the objects within became only blurs. It the midst of a run, I shifted into a small wild hare and continued my wild track around the room. I couldn't jump as far as I could when I was a bobcat, but my ability to navigate through the room, dodging this way and that was an incredible thrill.

I shifted into form after form, never tiring and without the brief delay I had always been held back by before. I didn't even need to rest and the idea that I had ever needed sleep was laughable. I felt impervious to the needs of my previously weak body; I was beyond that now.

Finally, after hours and hours of fun, I came to a screeching halt and shifted to my usual form.

Someone was just outside the door, in Eric's closet above me. He was back! I readied to escape the minute he opened the door and when I focused more intently on his exact position, I realized that it wasn't Eric; but a fairy. Before my heart could beat faster at the realization that a fairy was feet away from me, it disappeared.

I stood and waited, looking up at the door, wondering who had been there. Within two minutes, four more fairy minds blinked into the room. I couldn't read or identify any of them and I knew that they couldn't tolerate being in here for sure, but I would like to come face to face with a fairy. I was sure I could do some serious damage in this condition if they were looking for a fight.

Suddenly the wall in front of me shook slightly, and I could sense power being applied to the door above me. Had I weakened the door enough that they would be able to knock it down with their fairy magic? Part of me wanted them to, but a smaller, more rational voice in the very back of my mind spoke up, warning me of the very real danger of this situation. But before I could get too worried, they were gone again.

In a flash of reckless desire, I wanted to chase after them, catch them and destroy them for the weaknesses that they had passed down to me. I bet I could outrun them if they didn't teleport.

Hey, I bet I could even outrun Eric like this, I had been almost as fast as Pam on Hana and I had caught her by being smart. Eric however would be harder to beat. He was fast and he could fly as I could when I shifted into a bird. How much fun would it be to play tag with him when I had access to these heightened abilities?

I wanted Eric to chase me with my new speed and to spar with me with my new strength. I thought about his long fingers and strong hands reaching for my body and was shocked when I ran my hands over my arms to find that they weren't mine anymore, but Eric's. I stared at them in disbelief and then laughed out loud, continuing to imagine every inch of his body and slowly I took on all the glorious form of Eric Northman stuffed into tiny girl shorts and a half shirt that left his delicious belly button uncovered.

If anyone could see me, they would think I was insane for all my laughing and who knows, maybe I was. But my laughter faded as my hands dropped lower and I encountered his, or my, depending on how you look at it, most different parts from mine. After I had pried off my shorts, I appreciated that I was definitely looking at it from a position of ownership from this angle.

The minute I became aware of it, the limp weighted piece of flesh became erect and demanded my attention. Wow! My hand wrapped around its width and I was surprised to perceive how small it felt in Eric's hand while it felt so incredibly large in my own. I removed my hand and my body revolted so I replaced my hand and began to move it in the way I had seen Eric do when he rubbed himself for my pleasure.

I purred; the feeling was so amazing. While I had my own very sensitive parts…this was just as good but much easier to stimulate. I was so intrigued with watching it from this angle that I leaned as far down as I could, eager to see the head peek in and out of the foreskin as I rubbed up and down and I was so caught up in the building pleasure that I completely forgot the consequences of a male's orgasm.

I screeched as cum shot out. "Holy crap!" I yelled, straightening up and giggling like a loon as I ran to fetch a cloth to wipe myself down. He wasn't just a gracious plenty; he was like the geyser, Old Faithful!

I was amazed again when the innocent touch of the cloth to my chest caused my newest toy to wake up once more. I smiled as I set to work again, this time preparing myself for the eventual 'outcum' of my actions.

I did my duty two more times and by that point the act was losing its novelty and I felt just plain gross, and of course I was. I was worse than a teenage boy watching his first porn movie. I'd had enough.

I closed my eyes and tried to return to my typical form, but when I thought about Eric's body becoming mine, I got another hard on and the desire to satisfy my need trumped the focus I needed to apply to changing my form.

I finally got smart and made my way into the bathroom to attend to my duties in the shower. As soon as I was done, I turned the warm water completely off and doused myself in a cold stream of water. It seemed to work but when I was getting out of the shower, my butt cheeks touched the doorframe and boom…I had another erection. "Fuck!" I yelled in Eric's voice.

This time I tried to ignore it, waiting it out so to speak, but that was to no avail. Then I thought about all the disgusting pictures I could imagine, willing it to fade…no luck. Finally I simply pulled on some of his loosest sweatpants and a sweatshirt and waited, and waited…but the desire was too strong.

I didn't want to take another shower, so remembering a movie I had seen as a young teenager, I raided Eric's sock drawer to keep the mess to a minimum. And yes, I was sniggering at the thought of the few remaining falsely pious humans toiling away late into the night around me in the building while I sat here and jacked off. There was a sad-looking pile of damp socks joining the other paraphernalia I had thrown into the living room. I knew I would regret that later as soon as they began to smell, but for some reason, I just didn't care.

Maybe this was the reaction Eric always told me about with the incredible need for vampires to have sex all the time. If it was, I had a newfound understanding and empathy for their situation. I also realized that I hadn't been giving Eric nearly enough sex when we were together, although I was sure that I could never keep up with this!

I frowned as something tickled the back of my mind again outside the door to Eric's chamber but it was gone before I could zone in on it. I was in the midst of a needed break from my new unrelenting master that was for once, not testing the elastic of Eric's sweatpants when I felt the presence again. I flipped around and prepared to defend myself until I recognized the panicked voice.

"Sookie!" Eric's voice echoed from somewhere in the bedroom. "Sookie!" His urgent voice boomed, closer now.

Son of a bitch, he was back. I looked down at my pants and at the socks, only slightly embarrassed by my lack of self-control, but mostly caught up in the humor of the situation.

Eric burst through the bedroom door, his eyes blazing, long blond hair flying and his strong hands burnishing a huge gleaming sword. He glared at me and growled, handling the sword threateningly, "Where is she?" he demanded.

My humor faded and I growled back at him, not in aggression but out of frustration that my sweatpants were once again straining at the mere sight of this gorgeous, furious man. Very few people had faced him when he was this angry and lived to tell the story.

"Sookie?" he asked, looking absolutely dumbfounded.

I tilted my head to the side, put my hands on my hips, deliberately taking on a very un-Eric posture and glared back at him. "Hello Eric, good to see you again. Have a nice trip, did you? Enjoy getting out and about, because I've been feeling a little pent up in here myself, thank you very much for asking." I swear it was like I was almost drunk. I hadn't noticed it before when I was alone, but now that he was with me, I was aware of how oddly I was behaving.

I don't think he heard a word I said as he stared at me with wide unblinking eyes, but he ever so slowly lowered the sword.

He stepped closer to me and sniffed at me, a grimace crossed his face and he turned to look at the pile of socks. I couldn't help myself, a cackle of giggles spewed out of my mouth.

"Sookie?" he asked again, narrowing his eyes. I nodded. "What have you done to my socks?" he asked seriously.

I really couldn't stop laughing now, the excitement at having someone real to talk to plus all the sexual stimulation was making me a bundle of over firing nerves. I grasped my stomach and bent partially over in a very uncomfortable position, considering my condition. I craned my neck up at him and laughed even harder when I saw his mouth drop open in shock and confusion.

Eric was absolutely befuddled, he tried to say a few things and failed and then stared at me blankly for a short while before he ushered me into the bedroom with his hands placed impersonally on the sides of my shoulders. I checked once and giggled again when I saw the look of extreme distaste on his face. We entered the room and he shut the door behind us, turned me around, still holding me by the shoulders with both hands.

"You can take on the form of people now, not just animals?" he asked, looking me straight in the eye.

"Obviously," I answered, tying to mimic his short controlled answers and his slight accent. He didn't find it funny.

"Change back," he said firmly.

"I've tried, but 'This'," I pulled the band of my pants out and his erection popped out to greet us, "keeps distracting me. How in the hell do you get anything done with 'This' popping up all the time? It's like a jack-in-the-box, every time I push it down, it just springs back up again!"

Eric's expression vacillated between horror and pride but I could see that he was trying to stifle a smile. He stood a little straighter, "I am virile," he said proudly and I was surprised that he didn't begin pounding on his chest to prove his point.

"Yeah, and so am I right now," that got rid of the self-satisfied look, "so tell me how to make it go away so I can get back to being me, okay?"

"Sex. Sex will make it go away."

"Ewwww…thanks but no thanks," I said with a shudder.

The thought of Eric having sex with himself combined with being back in this wretched room again caused my gloriously numbing high to drain and allowed my real emotions to roll back in with the force of a hurricane.

Within a minute, everything hurt, including my heart and I was desperate to get back into the other rooms right away. This kind of awareness sucked when I knew how much emotional intensity was waiting right around the corner to smack me onto my ass.

I knew I could now, so I shifted back into my own form, clutched his huge pants around me and then I turned around to go back out the door to the living room. Eric was suddenly standing in my way, staring at me. I could see every emotion he felt clearly written in his eyes and I flatly rejected his wonder, love and concern. I didn't want him looking at me as he did when he first realized I was alive, I treasured those moments too much

He reached towards me, his hands outstretched, face soft, eyes wide and vulnerable. "Sookie," he whispered almost inaudibly.

I stepped out of his reach and pulled myself up as tall as I could (which wasn't very tall compared to when I was in his form) and hissed into his shocked face. "Don't touch me! How could you think that you could possibly have the right to put one finger on me after you dumped me down here? Why are you back anyway, clearly you don't care about me since you left me here to rot in this poison filled hole."

He held his hands up in defense and opened his mouth to talk but I didn't let him, "Poison Eric, you deliberately poisoned me with iron. You took information that you gained from my great-grandfather when you were my friend and lover and used it to control me. I trusted you, I protected you, and I loved you and you left me down here to rot! I could have been dead for all you knew!"

Grief and hurt rolled over Eric's expression, causing the corners of his eyes to droop and finally he looked as old as he really was. "No, Sookie. I knew you were safe, but then the Ancient Pythoness warned me about the…"

He tried to continue but I again cut in, "How Eric, how could you possibly…" suddenly the pieces began to fit together like the tumblers in a lock. There was only one way he could conceivably have known that I was safe.

I looked up, scanning the walls and high ceiling for cameras. "Don't you dare tell me that you've been watching me," I whispered.

He just stared at me, confirming my suspicions, and my eyes grew even larger…he could only have watched me at night.

"Did you have Weres watching me during the day?" I said, more upset than I could express at the thought of strangers observing my every move over the last three days.

Again, he didn't respond, he didn't have to, the last tumbler had fallen into place and I understood. And here it was, here was the moment that I was going to be knocked onto my ass.

It all made sense now…how Pam had known Hunter's name…the kiss he sent her…how Eric had known about my weakness to warm iron, not just iron itself. This was so much worse than anything I could have imagined. I could almost understand what Eric's explanation might be for why he put me here, but Hunter…? I just couldn't fathom how he could have done this to me.

"You son of a bitch!" I yelled out to both Eric and Hunter, pain radiating through my chest so acutely that I had to wrap an arm around my chest to contain it.

Had Hunter helped Eric lock me in here in payback for shutting him in the 'safe room?'

"This is nothing like what happened in Hana. Nothing. Hunter was in imminent danger there and I knew that he was safe when I locked him in that room, just like I knew you were safe when I left you," I glared at Eric. "I had to leave to figure out how to keep you safe, Eric…safe from me."

I raised my eyes to the ceiling toward where the invisible cameras must be, and yelled, "And Hunter, if you're listening, I left Bon Temps for you! I was scared for my own safety, but I wouldn't have given up my whole life, my family and friends if it hadn't been for you. You ungrateful little shit!" Tears were forcing their way out of my eyes and I wiped them away viciously.

I turned on Eric once again, my rage clearly palpable in the room, "Let me out of here Eric Northman!"

"Are you done?" he asked calmly.

"Yes, I'm done. I'm done being the sacrificial lamb; I'm done putting everyone else first and me last. I'm done. I want out. Let me out!"

"No," he said firmly, completely in control.

That only made my anger grow to new heights, "Let me out of here Eric!" I screamed at the top of my voice and I was ruled by the urge to push him across the room, the need to strike out at him was nearly overwhelming, but I controlled it.

Suddenly I had a flashback of Topec showing me the possible pathways my life could take if I didn't get help in controlling my powers and I realized that this was one of those moments. Somehow we would have been in a similar situation to this one and instead of pulling back on my anger, I would have lost control, struck out at Eric and ended him.

Everything inside me went limp and numb at the realization of how close I had come to killing him...twice since I knew from experience that I could have taken his head off with that jagged piece of metal. I couldn't get past Eric into the living room so I turned from him and walked without feeling my legs into the closet where I told Victor to close the door. The panel slid shut behind me, swallowing me in darkness that I gratefully welcomed. I leaned against the door and slid down until I was sitting with my back against the panel with my aching head propped on my knees.

Silent tears rolled down my cheeks and I tried with everything I had to get over the terror of my near miss with Eric. Once I had accepted my actions and embraced the fact that I had stopped myself in time, I tried to piece together a plausible explanation as to why Hunter had betrayed me, but I only found more questions. I sat there for a few minutes, until I could pull myself together and then I forced myself to stand. I had Victor turn on the lights so I could shed Eric's clothes and I put on my equivalent of emotional body armor, soft socks, jeans, a long shirt that I tucked into the jeans and a fluffy cardigan.

I took a deep breath and had Victor open the door again. Eric was standing where I had left him with the exact same expression of guilt and grief still etched on his face.

"Let me out," I said coldly to him.

"No."

"What do you want from me Eric?"

"I want to talk with you," he said, his eyes boring into mine. "You promised we would talk on Maui and then you disappeared. Again. We need to talk."

He was right about one thing, I had promised that we would talk, but right now there was only one person I wanted to talk to, I couldn't even think about sharing anything with Eric until I had spoken with Hunter.

"I'm not even going to respond to that until I see Hunter," I said firmly.

Eric stared at me for a long time and then took an unnecessary breath, "You will wait here for me, in this room?" he asked and I nodded my head, lying to him intentionally.

He took five steps back until he was directly below the exit in the ceiling, staring at me the whole time. I readied my body to shift and follow him to the door the minute he opened it. He would have to take time to access the security panel to get it to open so I should definitely have time to get out.

He flew into the air, his eyes still on me and when he was halfway to the ceiling, he said something in what must have been Old Norse, but that was preceded by the name Victor. The door slid open and by the time I had managed to shift into a falcon and had taken to the air, he was gone and the door was already sliding shut. Furious with myself and how slow I was in this room, I altered my course, landed on the chair and shifted back into my normal form and sat back to wait.

Less than five minutes later, the panel slid open again and Eric returned, looking less than happy to be carrying a large man in his arms.

I watched as Hunter paled the minute he entered the room and he was shaking and unsteady when Eric put him on the floor and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

I couldn't help myself, it didn't matter how angry or hurt I was by Hunter's apparent actions; I had to help him. I jumped out of the chair and rushed to his side, putting my hands on his back and rubbing soothingly.

"No, don't touch me. It makes it worse," he panted through a tight jaw.

I immediately removed my hands, remembering how sick I felt with every shift of Eric's body when he carried me to this room and decided to leave him alone. He should adjust quickly; this room was where I had felt best at first, so he was probably only experiencing a fraction of what I had felt. Plus he had less sky fairy in him than I did, so this shouldn't be too bad for him at all.

I sat back down in the chair and waited. Within a minute or two, Hunter gently shook his head and blinked his eyes repeatedly, trying to clear his head and then he stood up and looked at me.

His eyes grew wide with shock and then narrowed as he continued to stare.

"What?" I asked, my irritation returning now that he was feeling better.

"You. You look so different."

I frowned. Yes I could imagine that I probably looked like crap after all that I'd been into over the past few days, "Gee, thanks Hunter. That's real nice of you to point out how crappy I look because you betrayed me to a vampire."

"No," he said defensively, "I don't mean you look bad, just different, kind of like you did in the photos from when we first came to Hana or the ones from before you left Louisiana. Let me show you," he said, nudging me with his mind.

I lowered my shields, simply curious what he was talking about and I was amazed to see that he was looking at me. The real me. Me as I was before I left Louisiana and started a genetic chain of events that altered most of my being. This was all so strange but I didn't have the energy available to put into figuring this out just now. I needed to get some answers first.

"Why, Hunter? Why did you do this?" I asked, ignoring his fascination with my appearance.

He looked away from me and moved his foot a little, a 'tell' of his that this was going to be bad, "Do you want the long version or the short one?"

"Everything, I want to know everything," I answered.

He nodded, guilt and determination flashing through his thoughts. "You're not going to like it," he said.

"I already don't like it Hunter, I don't think you can possibly make this much worse. In my mind, you turned me over to a vampire you supposedly didn't know and shared secrets with him that allowed him to weaken me and keep me in this prison for the last three days. You threw me to the wolves Hunter and I need to know why."

He nodded and fully opened his mind to me.

I watched his memories with growing horror and felt the color drain out of my face as I turned in the chair so that my knees were on the floor and my face was pressed into the cushion I had been sitting in. I covered my head with my hands as I was racked with sobs that came from the deepest part of my being.

My heart broke, completely broke for the little boy who had been privy to my best dreams and worst nightmares without my awareness.

I had wanted to do so much for him, to help him and show him nothing but love and peace, but this nightly torture…my God, I could hardly handle the nightmares as an adult, and he had been faced with them for years…years! How had this happened without my awareness? He must have been so scared.

I felt his hand on my back, but I couldn't look at him, I was too appalled.

"It didn't happen all the time," he said to me quietly, "only when you were really tired or upset, and I liked your dreams. You were always so happy in them and I knew how sad you were most of the time, even though you tried to hide it from me."

I held my head even tighter, thinking of my multitude of X-rated dreams I'd had of being back in Eric's arms. I'd wanted to protect him from those kinds of thoughts and instead…

"Cut it out! I didn't know what was going on when I was younger; all I knew was that he made you feel safe and happy. Those were two emotions you didn't feel much for years. His face was what I thought of, what I saw in my mind whenever I saw the sadness in your eyes. I knew that if I could just get you two back together, you could finally be happy." He paused and then said quietly, "I tried to make you happy…"

I gasped audibly, but he continued_, _"and I know I did, but you'd be lying if you said you were truly happy. Content maybe, comfortable, yes, but not happy."

Oh, poor sweet little boy. I raised my left hand from my head and his larger one clasped it tightly and I felt his other arm wrap around me and he placed his chin on my shoulder.

Then he said silently, _'And all the men who tried to get into your heart, you froze them out or turned them away. You're empty inside and all I know is that he filled that emptiness before and that you desperately want it again. Why won't you let him in? Just try and give yourself some peace. You did so much for me. Now give yourself a break and a chance.'_

'_This wasn't your place to interfere Hunter; this is my life. I've let you go, you need to let me go too.'_

'_You had your chance to choose how you would let me go. Don't I get the chance to decide how I'm willing to let you go? You're not the only one who worries. I love you too, you're my only real family and you've given me your whole life and more. Can't I do something to help you get what you so desperately want? You love him. He loves you. You've been running for so long I don't think you know how to stop running. You push everyone away, everyone except for our 'family' in Hana. I know you did this to protect us, but now you're doing it to protect your heart. I don't want you to be alone anymore. I know. I know how hard it was for you to leave and I'm not ungrateful, I promise. I know what you left behind…for me. I've always known.'_

I let go of his hand and turned around so that my back was resting on the chair and I faced him.

"You shouldn't have done this," I said but my voice held no censure.

"I know that now. I had no idea that iron would affect you in this way. It's crazy what it did to you."

I agreed but a flash of my being naked down here while he was watching blazed through my mind.

"Oh, God, that's the last thing you need to worry about, the minute you started to take off your towel, I turned off the screen and got to listen to you having a conversation with…was that your…our Gran you were talking to?" he asked a little envious. He'd never had an older relative besides Pua, and we'd just adopted her, but I guess the fact that we weren't blood related really didn't matter at all.

'Thanks for that insight Gran,' I thought.

I gave him a small smile, "Maybe, maybe not, she just kept me company."

"She sounded great, I think I would have liked her," he said.

"I've always told you that you would have loved one another."

He smiled sadly and then he became serious, "Listen, I'm really, really sorry that you got burned, I had already turned down the temperature, but it took a few hours to get the iron to cool down enough so that it wouldn't hurt you."

I was about to brush off his concern. Injuries like that were hardly worth mentioning with my ability to heal, I'd pretty much forgotten about it anyway.

I didn't get the words out of my mouth because Eric had thrown open the door and was crouched next to us with his face inches from Hunter's, glaring at him. "Burned? You said nothing about her being burned!" he growled. He then turned his gaze on me and surveyed all of my available skin to discern where I had been burned.

I just sighed, so tired of the protective vampire routine when I didn't need it anymore.

Hunter pulled back away from Eric's fangs and said, "It happened when you were flying to the airport, she knocked the lamp over," he looked at me with a teasing smile on his face, "smooth move, by the way," and turned back to Eric, "and bumped into the wall on her way to the bedroom. She healed within a minute so I didn't think you needed to know about it."

"I told you I wanted to know everything of note," he spat.

"Would you have been able to go to the summit if I told you that she had been burned?"

The answer was clear in Eric's eyes, but he turned on me, "Is that why you were crying in the bedroom, against the door?" he gestured to the closed bedroom door.

I shrugged, "Only a very small part of those tears had to do with the burn." I wasn't about to go into the details about why I was crying, I didn't have the strength to hurt him when he looked so upset already.

Eric stood up and left the room quickly and Hunter and I both cringed when we heard a succession of loud crashes in the outer rooms.

"I didn't think there was anything else to break after the damage you did," Hunter snickered.

I gave him a small smile that faded with his next words.

"Do you think I would be able to tap into such cool powers if I went out there for a while? I can't believe what you can do."

"No." I said firmly, "No, Hunter, it's not worth it. I mean, I want to go back because it feels so good, but I don't think it's smart, I'm kind of out of control out there."

He nodded and then laughed at a memory of me in Eric's body and I blushed laughing too, and covered my face at the thought of how I had disrespected and appreciated his body; but man had I enjoyed it.

I gave him a real hug. "You are a little shit, you know that?" I said into his shoulder.

"That's how you raised me," he responded.

He was right. I had raised him to make his own choices and to never let anyone else push him around, not even me it seemed.

A few minutes later, Hunter stood up and told me that he needed to get back to his hotel. He was staying the next block over, that's how Eric had brought him to me so quickly.

I wanted to leave with him, but I let him go. I couldn't handle a fight right now. I even let Eric leave without trying to follow him. I was determined to give him a chance to defend himself now. Hunter's explanation, although it ripped my heart out to hear, helped me to understand why he would do this. Maybe Eric's would too.

I was sitting in the chair in the bedroom when he returned. I had my head resting in my hands so I heard him rather than saw him enter the room through the ceiling passageway.

There was a heavy silence for a while and then his soft voice caressed my ears, "Sookie, dawn is coming, I must rest." I nodded, knowing that I would soon be alone again and I hated it. "Please rest with me."

My eyes flipped open in shock at his request but I shook my head, not changing my posture otherwise.

"You haven't slept in the time that you've been here, you need to rest," he said gently.

"No, I don't," I informed him.

"Why? How?"

I sighed and slowly looked up at him, he was so tired, and not tired from the dawn, but from the strain all of this was putting on him. I could give him this little bit.

"Sera fae don't need sleep, Eric," I said simply.

"Sera fae?" he questioned.

I closed my eyes, overwhelmed by the amount of information we didn't know about one another anymore. "That's what I am Eric, I'm predominantly fae, a sera fae. It's the name applied to my kind by those who don't want to kill me. The sky and water fairies call me a 'scrios,' which means 'to destroy' or in another form, 'destroyer.' To them, I'm part of a plague that needs to be eradicated, but that's just the modern understanding of the story."

He frowned and I knew that he wanted me to continue, but he was weakening. When I didn't continue he made his way to the closet, pulled off his suit pants, and button down shirt and put on a pair of boxer briefs and a t-shirt before he climbed into bed.

"You're going to rest in here with me?" I asked, absolutely surprised.

"I trust you Sookie. Please stay in this room as much as you can, the iron affects your judgment and your emotions more than I think you realize."

I agreed, but didn't let him know how very hard that would be for me once he was asleep.

"What will you do all day?" he asked, a little concern tinting his slurred voice almost as though he understood my internal struggle.

I knew he was asleep before I answered, but I still said out loud, "Decide what to do about you."

0-0-0-0-0

A/N: So here they are, with nowhere to run and no one else to interrupt…for the foreseeable future.

Thanks to my wonderful Beta who convinced me to keep the Eric 'twin' part in (I'd cut it thinking I was leaving the realm of decency too far behind) and also for her addition to my 2AM madness. You can thank her for the Old Faithful references.

Eric hasn't seen or heard about everything that happened (more than when she burned her arm) so he has a few things that he didn't see such as when she initially shifted into his form. I'll be filling in some of the gaps either this next chapter or one soon after that. I tried to add some of the trial into this chapter, but all the other things were too eager to get out. Hopefully I'll be inspired this week.

My translations are from the Internet, so if you speak Swedish, I apologize.

Öppna dörr: open the door lås upp dörr: unlock the door låt mig ut: Let me out utgång: Exit kyss mig i röven: kiss my ass dra åt helvete: go to hell bitta mig: bite me Du är en avskyvärd gris: you are a loathsome pig


	30. Chapter 30

A/N: Here we are…the talk begins.

My thanks go out to my wonderful beta charhamblin who helped me with this story even with a hurt wrist. You're the best! She also helped point out an area I needed to flesh out a bit, so if you see lots of errors in the second half- that's entirely my fault. I didn't send it back for a second check.

Chapter 30

Possibility

And that's what I did. I sat there in that chair and pondered over what in the world I would do about Eric. Hunter, I could forgive, but I certainly wouldn't forget what he had been party to, and I wouldn't be letting him forget it either, but he wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, my biggest problem. The dead guy in the bed, about ten feet from me, he was the real source of my stress and worries.

I worked for a long time while I sat in that chair, trying to calm myself down after all the emotional upheaval I'd been going through; from the bizarre way I'd been acting and feeling, to Eric's return and the realization of Hunter's part in this while debacle. By the time I had managed to fully calm myself down, I could hear the first trickling of humans coming onto my floor to begin their typical workday.

Eric had been asleep for about two hours and even though I had seen him sleep before, I didn't know if I would ever get used to how very still he was. I remember the tears I fought the first time I saw Bill die, it had seemed so permanent at that moment, but now I knew that I only had a few short hours to get my mind in order before Eric woke again. Plus I have to admit that even though I was still angry with him, it gave me comfort to know that I could wake him if I needed to. It made his 'dying for the day' so much more like sleep.

I stood up and stretched, I was feeling better in here now. The loss of the iron-enhanced sera fae powers was not so acute anymore, and I came to the conclusion that it was the transition between spaces that was hardest for me. Once I had adapted to one environment or another, I found a rhythm that felt almost natural.

Right now, I was much weaker than I was in the other rooms, but I was grateful to be more level-headed and grounded, although I couldn't deny that I had enjoyed myself quite a lot, probably way too much. But right now, what I needed was a clear head.

I walked over to the bed, only slightly wary that Eric would wake, it had been such a long time since I had been around him while he was sleeping, it would take me some time before I was sure my general noises wouldn't wake him.

I stopped when I was about a foot from the bed and gazed down on him. I wanted to look at him with love, I had dreamt of this for so long, but right now I couldn't see him the way I needed to. Grief squeezed my heart when I thought about how it would have felt to come upon him sleeping the night I had returned from Britlin when my emotions had been so clear and focused. I wanted to release the love I had for him, because it was still there, it was just buried underneath all these other emotions. I wanted to feel it and revel in it, share it with him and have hope for it and for us, but I just couldn't right now.

I knew that we loved one another, but I didn't know if we could express that love in a way that would be acceptable to the other anymore. It had been so many years since we had explored our love together and even then our relationship had been imploding around us from internal and external factors.

Now here we were, sixteen years later, facing similar, but so much more serious problems. Not only did we have a shaky foundation to contend with, but I was a completely different being and a very different person in terms of what I was willing to tolerate and what I expected from myself and those around me.

I was still figuring myself out and trying to find my place in the supernatural world, how would Eric ever be able to keep up with me? Would he even want to especially after how I had been acting these last few days? I was afraid to tell myself how very much I hoped that he would be willing to give us another try.

I resisted the urge I had to fix the sheet he had carelessly thrown over himself and to brush his hair off his cheek, I didn't have the right to touch him when we were at such odds. I wasn't sure if we would ever earn that right back again.

I forced myself to step back and go into the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day. I needed the simple actions to help keep me from losing it in here with so little to do.

After my shower, I tightly wound a towel around me, aware that Hunter might still be observing me and quickly made my way to the closet. I chose a pair of dark blue jeans and a white long-sleeved shirt and topped it with a light gray cardigan. I still wanted the comfort and security of being fully covered by clothes and the darker colors matched my mood more than the multitude of bright flowery shirts that were more my general style.

I sat back in the chair, ignoring the slight hunger pangs that reminded me that I hadn't eaten in a long time. I was surprisingly nervous about leaving the room, given how much I'd hated it just a few hours ago. But I liked being in control of myself and knew that I'd lose it pretty quickly when I went back out again. I'd have to eat at some point, but not just yet. Maybe I'd wait till lunch time so I could quickly grab the ingredients for a sandwich and bring them back here to assemble rather than eating it outside.

I'm not a chicken, I just didn't trust myself out there. When I recalled some of my emotions, I was terrified that I might hurt Eric without even realizing it. I didn't have control over my emotions and that was essential to maintaining a firm handle on my powers. If this was how all full blooded sera fae felt and acted, there was no wonder why they had such terrible enemies.

I laid my head on the soft cushion, closed my eyes and opened my mind to the often-entertaining humans on my floor, banishing my worries.

I sought out the woman I'd heard before and found her quickly. Unfortunately, she was wrapped up in a document she was reading about two-natured genetics and how to identify those who are from a full-blooded couple, but not the first offspring of that couple.

I shifted my attention, opened my mind to accept a wider range of thoughts and gasped at the clear image of the Ancient Pythoness that I ran across. There was no mistaking her wild white hair, blindly staring eyes and slight body.

I frowned and focused more intently on the mind I had tapped into and had to grip the armrests on my chair to keep from toppling over when I pinpointed the source.

Vampires did dream! Their dreams, or at least Eric's dreams were similar to watching a documentary like 'Planet Earth,' where you just sit staring at the screen with your mouth wide open, the pictures are so vivid and breathtaking.

Eric was dreaming of the trial at the summit and the details were crisp and clear, a testament to his perfect recall abilities. Most people's dreams and memories for that matter were broken and incomplete, with whole sections of the memory missing or hazy due to their inability to take in all the tiny details around them. It was like watching a play where most of the stage goes dark, putting the non-essential characters of that moment in shadows and highlighting only the one actor who requires your attention with a spotlight. But to Eric and probably most older vampires, every detail was essential, nothing was to be taken for granted. It was incredible to see how he perceived the world around him.

I was so enthralled by his dream that it took me a second to realize that I was once again opening myself up to Eric's mind. I had sworn off looking into vampire's minds because of my acute fear of them forcing their thoughts on me, but my curiosity and awe at his dream trumped my fear and I delved into his mind, allowing myself to be pulled along for the ride.

God this was incredible. I could feel everything, from the light brush of his pants material along his thigh to the acute awareness he had that the Ancient Pythoness was 'staring' blindly at him as he entered the trial room. My breath was knocked out of me when I realized I hadn't once thought about Eric and the trial in days, when I had been so worried about him before. What was wrong with me that I would forget the peril he was in? I hadn't even asked him how it went, I just jumped down his throat. Obviously he hadn't been given the final death, he'd been released, but at what price? Had he been exonerated or had he been made to pay some kind of penalty?

Suddenly he was at the front of the room, looking out at his retinue. I saw many familiar faces and some new ones…

….

_We weren't late, in fact, we were two minutes early, but everyone else was already seated. I walked swiftly down the left side of the room to the front, keeping my eyes trained on the Ancient Pythoness, who was 'watching' me closely from her throne between two lecterns on the stage._

_The room was packed and everyone was chatting in hushed voices, but silence fell in a wave as I passed each row. I arrived at the front, bowed deeply to the Pythoness, turned and was met by Louisiana's vampires on one knee, in deference to me as their King. A few seconds later, Freyda came to stand at my side and Oklahoma's contingent joined Louisiana's on their knee. We stood and took our tribute._

_This I had expected._

_What I had not expected was for Stan to come and join us, forcing his contingent to find places to kneel in the now crowded aisle. Then more vampires filled the doorway, led by Queen Rebecca Falcon from Maine, King Sean O'Neil from Tennessee and Malia Kanakau from Rhode Island. The three state's leaders stopped in the back of the room, led their contingents along the back wall and paused there before bowing deeply to the Pythoness and then turning and nodding to Freyda, Stan and I. King Tobias Blackstone from Indiana stood from where he was sitting in the crowd, paid his tribute to the Pythoness and then acknowledged our group as well._

_I was caught off guard, although I presented a calm and confident facade, nodding slightly in acknowledgement of their gesture._

_This type of action was unusual, but not unheard of at a trial._

_Yes, I was the party named in the complaint, but these four monarchs were members of the Interkingdom Fae Initiative Team (or the IFIT as most called it) that I had put together ten years ago when the fae had begun moving West. If my neck was on the line, then each of these monarchs could also face their own complaints. They were here not to save my ass, but to cover their own._

_The gesture was however appreciated and it proved my point that I had not been alone in making the decisions for which I was being blamed._

_Stan alone was sticking his neck out by publicly associating himself with me at such a risky time, but he too had his motivations. Stan was attempting to convince Freyda and I to expand our alliance to include his kingdom. Since the bombing in Rhodes, Texas had been threatened twice, once from outside and once from inside his kingdom. Despite his dire situation, he had been unwilling to wed and found our solution of an alliance to be a more palatable option._

_We'd had a good working relationship ever since Sookie had been to Texas to find Farrell, but I wasn't completely sure I could trust him, our two decade old relationship hadn't been through enough to be sure of how he would react under pressure. He would earn some points for this particular gesture, but my faith in him was still limited by our lack of joint experience, and I wouldn't be tying myself to someone I was unsure of in the least._

_After this display, which only took a few seconds, everyone sat except for myself. I stood where I was, facing the council and the Ancient Pythoness._

….

I blinked as Eric's memories skipped around so much that I couldn't make sense of what was happening and when it refocused, Mr. Cataliades was at the front of the room questioning an older Asian vampire. From the angle I was seeing the room, I surmised that Eric was sitting in a chair to her right on a raised platform before the gathering of his peers.

The Asian woman was hands down the oldest vampire I'd ever seen next to the Pythoness, having been turned probably in her seventies. Despite her age and her soft, full face, her hair was raven black. I wasn't sure if that was how it was when she had been turned, or if she colored it each night upon rising. I thought about how much I hated simply blow drying my hair and gave her credit for her meticulous care.

She'd pulled her hair into a large bun at the middle of the back of her head and she wore an orange pantsuit that made me think of Autumn leaves with a blue and white shirt underneath and a wide red necklace. The colors were unusual in their pairing, but for some reason, they worked on her.

She had intelligent and sharp eyes that were so busy surveying her environment, I could almost see her mind calculating and measuring everything she saw and heard. It was clear that this was a woman not to be trifled with…she kind of reminded me of a more visibly tense Eric.

I smiled at the sight of Mr. Cataliades. He looked exactly the same as he did when I had last seen him. I was relieved that Eric had turned to him when he was in need of legal defense, I didn't think there was any better lawyer out there. I certainly hadn't been impressed by Simon Maimonides, his brother-in-law, who had represented the kingdom of Arkansas at my only summit in Rhodes.

I scanned the crowd a little bit and saw a face I had hoped never to see again. Johan Glassport, Sophie-Anne's murdering lawyer was sitting in a position that made it look like...no, he couldn't be. Eric would not have hired Glassport to defend him...would he?

I refocused my attention on the content of his dream…

….

_"As has happened to many ruling men, he lost his judgment because of a woman. Most here saw his unusual attachment to her at the summit in Rhodes, and I have heard many stories about it over the years. I am sure it was not a conscious decision, but none-the-less, he, a thousand year old vampire was manipulated by a talented part-fairy and her significantly more powerful great-grandfather. The results of his errors and weakness have been to the detriment of the entire vampire community."_

_I kept my face impassive, but I wanted to rip her head off for her slander. Knowing it would only get worse as my relationship with Sookie was examined under a microscope, I relaxed my jaw and sat back in the chair, the epitome of a relaxed but attentive king._

_"How did you come to this conclusion?" Mr. Cataliades asked._

_"It is common knowledge that she worked her way up the ladder of power beginning with Bill Compton, before turning her sights on Sheriff Eric Northman. During this time, she, a mere human with a drop of fairy blood managed to murder a number of vampires and 'save' the then King of Louisiana from the famed warrior Sigebert and in so doing, earned Felipe's protection and admiration._

_"Felipe actually told me, just days before he was ousted by Eric Northman that he was going to be bringing Ms. Stackhouse into his personal retinue in Nevada. She was successful in patiently making her way up the ranks and using her fairy blood and familial connections to manipulate the men in power._

_"It's clear that she must have had some help in these endeavors, how else could she best Sigebert, Bill Compton's maker Lorena Ball and according to Felipe, Bruno Brazell? She was simply a glorified human, but she had her fairy relatives including Prince of the fairies, Niall Brigant himself, Claude and Claudine Crane and Dermot Brigant at her beck and call._

_"Now, the very same fairy line that was helping her to control the vampires around her and kill the ones who wouldn't cooperate are still at work with Eric Northman."_

_"Why do you think that the work he has been doing with the fae has been a result of further fairy manipulations?" Cataliades prompted her to spew more lies._

_"It is also common knowledge that his fairy wife shared a house with Claude Crane and Dermot Brigant and that Eric frequently visited her in that environment. His unusual tolerance for the fae was well known even then, surprisingly so after a very respectable history in the fae war. Sixteen years ago, his fairy wife was murdered, and he used this event as an excuse to take over three states. That was good planning and I commend him for his actions except for his huge oversight of letting Felipe escape, a novice's error." She sneered at me, mocking my failure._

_"Within a few years of his takeover, fae began to cause trouble the likes of which we hadn't seen for eight hundred years. Conveniently, Louisiana's new king was still in contact with his 'grandfather-in-law' and his wife's cousin. After meeting with them, he started the IFIT. This Interkingdom Fairy Initiative Team not only halted the natural course of events when it made it punishable for a vampire who attack a fae, but it gave the fae free reign to travel across our kingdoms, taunting and attacking vampires. He established the rule of punishing a vampire who attacks a fae with chaining said vampire in a room for two months with a variety of free fae to desensitize them to the scent. His punishment for a fairy who attacks and kills a vampire is to place that fairy into the waiting arms of his brethren, without punishment. How is that equal justice for our kinds? He is clearly still being manipulated by his wife's family."_

_"What is the situation in California-Sacramento?"_

_"Just over a year ago, in the process of carrying out one of Eric Northman's ill-conceived orders through the IFIT, a team of two vampires and three Weres were murdered by a lone fae. As you know, all of California has been overrun by fae in the last five years or so. It is impossible for a young vampire to go out alone, especially in some of the more densely wooded areas that I control without running into a fae, and as we all know, the young ones are more prone to answering the call of their blood. My population is declining as vampires are murdered or move East to escape the onslaught. I have worked diligently to bring talented vampires to California-Sacramento and it was working to revitalize my beleaguered kingdom before the fae began to arrive and chased them away."_

_She looked out at the crowd and used her best inflammatory voice, "Where is my power to act to protect my people and my assets? Where is equality for vampires? Why has he given away our right to defend ourselves and to exact vengeance for our losses?"_

_"Are you speaking personally of losses?" Cataliades asked._

_"Yes. Sadly one of the vampires murdered by a fairy six months ago was the child of my second child, so I have been affected personally by this travesty."_

_I allowed my eyes to flick toward Pam momentarily and I felt a slight burst of humor coming through the bond. Wu's tricks were as old as she was, and I had made it my business to know as many of them as I could._

_"Thank you," Cataliades said._

_"Eric Northman, it is your turn to explain your actions, please proceed," the Ancient Pythoness croaked._

_I nodded deeply to her and began, "What she says is true," I paused for effect. I could feel the room pause with me. I wanted to make sure I had each individual's attention. "About the fact that I was married to Sookie Stackhouse and that she was part fairy, one eighth in fact. The rest is a desperate attempt to discredit me and win four kingdoms in the process, maybe more." I looked at the other members of the IFIT and nodded._

_Glassport walked up close to my seat, "Please explain your relationship with Niall Brigant."_

_"Niall Brigant, my wife's great-grandfather and prince of the fairies was aware that Sookie was living in my Area. We had met many years ago at the end of the fairy war and so he came to me to help him obtain an introduction to his great-granddaughter. At the time she was not aware of him, I know this and the other things I may say about her motives because she was not just my wife, but my bonded._

_"I assisted him in his endeavor to meet her and they had a brief and formal relationship that ended when he closed the portal to Faery because of an internal fairy war that ended up with Sookie being tortured and almost killed by his enemies, Naeve and Lochlan." There was a ripple of reaction from the older vampires in the crowd, many of whom had fought against the sadistic fairy pair._

_"It was the right decision to make, but he acted too quickly and left behind many fae. Some had chosen to stay at the time and some had been trapped, unaware that the portal was to be closed._

_"Please explain what happened to make the fae travel west toward California."_

_"I can only give my observations, I don't understand the force that drives them. The problems began just over ten years ago. Yes, this is the time period after I lost my wife, but then again everything that occurred in the past sixteen years has happened since she was taken from me and they were not all caused by her and her family." I heard a snicker in the crowd and sent Pam calm over the bond. I had to be very careful about how I discussed Sookie. Any mention on my part about her death could come back to haunt me once it became common knowledge that she was in fact alive. I could not be caught lying in front of the Pythoness._

_Everything would have been so much easier if Sookie had returned on time, just the three nights would have given me the time I needed to talk with her about this and to figure out how she wanted to address the exaggerated reports of her death. I was walking a fine line here, but I would not make this decision without her input._

_"They tolerated, with some trouble, living in large groups near the only remaining and mostly closed portal in the woods behind my wife's former home. Anyone who has even a basic knowledge of the fae understands that they are calmed and are less drawn into mischief when they are together, it is the lone fae that is a risk to any around it. A year or so after Sookie's funeral, Niall returned to tell me that he was closing the small bit of the portal that he had kept open so that he could come and go when he wanted. He told me that he no longer had any use for it and wanted to limit the drain on his energy since he was focusing on re-establishing his rule in Faery._

_"I believe that the presence of the portal had given the fae in the area some comfort and not long after it was closed, they began to move West._

_"They moved slowly, causing trouble and when we began to lose vampires and a new war threatened, I contacted Niall again and worked out a strategy that would eventually lead to a drastic reduction in violence between our two kinds. I have the data of every incident before and after the intervention of the IFIT and the results are clear._

_"I knew that any action taken to stop a war would put my kingdom at risk so I asked for the assistance from other monarchs who wished to avoid a war and we jointly set up the laws that would govern vampires while Niall and his grandson, Claude, set laws and carried out justice to the fae._

_"Are her reports of the inequality of punishments to vampire and fae true?"_

_"She is once again manipulating details to fit her schemes. A vampire who is detained after killing or drinking from a fae is given padded silver ankle cuffs and is kept unrestrained in a safe environment. He or she is constantly guarded and is given human or synthetic blood depending on their preference and the availability of donors. Fairies are present in a separate room and their scent is pumped into the chamber. Data supports this as the only quick and effective means to desensitizing a young vampire to the fairy scent._

_"To allow vampires, high on fairy blood or seeking another 'hit' of the blood, would be tantamount to supporting a vampire/fae war. I believe that anyone who wants a war or who risks a war, is either too young to remember the last one or is a fool who has little value for vampire lives, even those of her own blood," I said directly to Wu._

_She let her fangs down and received a sharp directive from the Ancient Pythoness to "Put your fangs away."_

_Glassport encouraged me, "What about her claims that you were under the influence of a strong and magical fairy family? Why did you tolerate male fairies living under your wife's roof?"_

_"I tolerated it because it was what made her happy. It made her happy because it made them happy. That was her magic. She gave of herself to the point of self-endangerment as we all recall. Many of us are here today because of her selflessness and her courage. She did not manipulate or control others. She drew us to her through her good works, her willingness to see beyond the vampire, demon, Were or fae._

_"She did not control me, nor did she seek to do so. Niall Brigant, however," I continued, "would use any situation to his benefit, and I have dealt with him very carefully, always keeping that in mind. I assure you, while our efforts have benefited both our kinds, he is not receiving anything from me that he would not get from any forward thinking and cautious vampire king."_

_The Pythoness leaned forward and addressed me directly, "Your wife, she was the telepath who defended Sophie-Anne so vehemently?"_

_I smiled in response to her carefully chosen words. Sookie had all but jumped up on the stage and told the Ancient Pythoness to be quiet. "Yes." I answered simply._

_"Hmmmm, then you have suffered a great loss," she said and just as I had felt the tides turn at her use of those words at Sophie-Anne's trial, I sensed that things were about to turn in my favor here tonight, once again because of Sookie's courage._

_"Yes, I have. But I have great hopes for the future."_

_She gave me a knowing smile and then her face went blank as she sought guidance from the magics that gave her sight. After a few tense moments she said clearly, "Eric Northman, I clear you of all charges and encourage you continue your work with the fae and with the initiatives you have begun with other supernatural groups in your kingdom. Wu, you have right to complain, California is taking the brunt of the fae burden, but if you continue this way, you will have no more children to kill." The crowd tittered quietly, murdering one of her bloodline and blaming another was an old strategy of hers. "I know your style, so watch your step. I will tolerate no more false accusations."_

_Wu gave a nod with an expressionless face, but her eyes were burning with malice and a promise to continue her pursuit of my kingdom especially now that I had embarrassed her in public._

_The trial was over, and voices filled the room once more._

_"Northman," the Pythoness's voice rang above the din of the crowd and silence fell once again._

_I was in front of her bowing as quickly as I could manage._

_She crooked her clawed fingers to me, bidding me to move closer to her for a private discussion. This was very unusual, no one got this close to her besides her handmaidens._

_Once I was a foot away from her, she said quietly to me so no one else could hear, "Your troubles with your wife have not come to an end I see," she stated._

_"No. I am thankful to have recently learned that they have not," I responded._

_"You are no longer needed here. Go to her. She has unknowingly called the fairies to her. In trying to protect her, you have also made her vulnerable. She needs you now."_

_While I stood dumbstruck at her words, she spoke loudly, "Louisiana will be represented by her second in command. I have asked her King to attend to pressing matters."_

_She looked at me expectantly and I didn't waste another second. With a look, I gave Pam the power to represent me at the summit and I turned to run out of the building and took to the sky._

_Flying would take less time than waiting for my plane to be readied at the last minute. My hands went to my pockets to access my phone but I knew before my fingers touched the material that I had left the phone in my room. Electronic devices were not allowed at the trials._

_I cursed myself for not remembering this and returning to my room first to retrieve it before beginning my trip, but every second might matter. I focused as hard as I could on maximizing my speed, I had to get there in time to help her. Although fairies couldn't go into the prison without becoming seriously weakened and ill, I was sure they were creative enough to figure out a way to get her to come out to them if they could force open the doors._

_I had doubts that they could succeed, the doors were designed to resist most attacks, but I would be a fool to risk Sookie's life on a hunch. She would be a sitting duck in there if they did get the doors open. Despite her incredible and disturbing abilities I had witnessed through the surveillance system, visions of the fairies sending in Weres, demons, vampires and even humans ran through my mind and drove me mad with worry. I couldn't lose her again. I couldn't face it. This time, if she were hurt, it would be my fault; completely my responsibility if anything happened to her._

_This was not how things should have gone, not from the very beginning. I should have had her safe in my arms right away, rather than being worried about losing her to the fairies, and worried that she would reject my love._

_I stewed in my worry and anger as I flew, so the slight hum of humor coming over the bond from Pam took a while to filter through to my conscious mind. When I connected with her more fully, I got the impression that she was not just happy, but deliriously amused._

_What in the fuck could she be finding so funny? We were exonerated and had been praised by the Pythoness herself, but that was not a reason for me to be feeling this emotion from her. I blocked it out; irritated by the distraction it presented from my focus on Sookie and the impending battle I was flying into to save the one woman I had ever loved._

….

Eric's memory then focused in on his plans for battle; visions of blade edges, points, pommels and grips flashed through his mind. He ran his fingertips down a long, sharp blade; slicing his fingers as he tested it for razor sharpness. He then held the blade out at eye level to determine its curvature, weight and length. A variety of swords popped into his hand as he weighed the pros and cons of each for every fighting situation.

I was enthralled as I watched him calculate force, momentum, trajectory and angle of thrust down to the tiniest detail in a wide array of possible situations and environments. I'd seen him fight before, using his deadly force and skill with unearthly beauty and joy, and that's what stood out in his thoughts…the joy. He loved fighting; craved the release, the exertion and skill required to best a supernatural. Fighting humans and Weres was boring and he had to hold back to ensure that he didn't damage others or leave too much evidence behind. But fighting a fairy or a vampire allowed him to tap into the warrior within him and tested his strength and skill, something that so rarely happened.

So through all the meticulous calculations and assessments, there was always an underlying stream of joy that ran just beneath the surface of his thoughts and actions.

The amazing thing was that rather than being worried or scared by feeling the violent passion of the vampire within him, I understood him and envied his skill. I loved tapping into the harsher and darker side of my nature when I fought; it released pressure within me and gave me permission to acknowledge the parts of my nature that I could allow very few to see. I was skilled, and trained by some of the best, but he'd had a thousand years to master what I had just learned.

Suddenly he took a deep breath, testing the air around him for threats and he was immediately bowled over by a scent that pulled a different kind of passion and violence from within him. This was a type of need I had never felt before and I was on alert, trying to determine what that amazing scent was that pulled so strongly at him.

He was no longer looking at weapons, but at a familiar room as he ruthlessly fought back his driving need to consume and destroy.

"Sookie?"

I heard his voice and tried to figure out what part of his dream I was seeing now. He was looking down at me with concern and need equally running through his mind. I was sitting in the chair in the bedroom, my head tilted back and resting on the back of the chair, my eyes staring blankly in front of me. It was a strange sight to see myself like that.

He knelt down to see me better, worried that I had taken ill. He knew I wasn't asleep, he could feel me in his mind, and my breathing was too irregular for sleep so he very gently reached out to touch my cheek.

I sprang into the air, startled by his soft touch and scrambled out of the chair, stopping when I was a few feet away from him. I held a hand over my heart to contain it in my chest as I gaped at him and threw up my shields as forcefully as I could, fearful that I wouldn't be able to get out of his mind again. I sighed in relief when I felt my mind secure itself, and I focused on pulling myself together.

Eric stood now, from his crouched position by the chair. His face was strained and his jaw was tight as he assessed my state.

"You didn't rest," he said, obviously choosing not to broach the subject of my delving into his mind without his permission.

"I've been sitting in that chair all day, I can't believe how fast it went, I lost track of the time." I knew I would have to explain my invasion of his privacy at some point, but I needed a few moments first.

"You haven't eaten anything either?" he asked, censure in his voice.

I shook my head.

"Why?" he demanded.

I looked at the door that led to the kitchen and felt the familiar anxiety associated with the overwhelming mixture of desire and fear I felt at the thought of going back out there. I just shook my head at his question and walked toward the bathroom. He was in my way, blocking my entrance to the bathroom before I got there.

"Why have you not eaten Sookie? As far as I know, you have only eaten one meal in four days now. Don't tell me you don't need to eat anymore because I can see how hungry and weak you are."

"I don't feel like talking about it Eric, " I said and tried to walk around him, he stepped in my path again.

"Do not run away from me again Sookie, answer my question. It is the simplest one you are going to get."

Maybe he thought it was, but it meant exposing something that I considered a weakness to him. I looked up and met his eyes. He was so strong, so powerful, and yet here he stood patiently waiting for my answer to a question.

I manned up, "I didn't eat the other days because I was distracted and I didn't eat today because I was worried about what might happen if I went out there again."

His face softened and he nodded. "I'll get you something to eat now. Do you have a preference?"

I shook my head and whispered, "Thanks," to his back as he closed the door behind him.

Well that didn't hurt too much, sharing a concern with him. I entered the bathroom, took another shower, brushed my teeth and I felt much better when I was clean again. I put my dirty clothes back on to go to the closet and get some clean ones. I didn't feel like being exposed by being only in a towel and I didn't want to give Eric any ideas.

I changed in the closet, once again donning other long pants, shirt and sweater and then I returned to the bedroom. Eric had a table I hadn't seen before set up in the corner with two chairs. The table was set with a plate covered by a bowl to keep it warm and he had a True Blood in front of him. He was sitting in the chair against the wall with his long legs stretched out in front of him, looking the very picture of relaxation now. He was much pinker than he had been when he woke up. This must not have been his first True Blood.

I decided to be gracious, I'd never seen him prepare a meal before. "Thanks, Eric," I said as I sat down and uncovered the plate. My stomach didn't turn at the sight, but Eric must have noticed my hesitation.

"What's wrong?" he asked, leaning forward and looking at the plate. I almost snickered, knowing that he didn't have a clue what he was looking at.

"Nothing," and really nothing was wrong…yet, and I really was hungry so I pushed back the memory of how awful fish smells once it sits around for a while and dug in.

We were silent while I ate and he drank and I had trouble making prolonged eye contact with him, but I could feel his eyes watching my every move. When I finished my meal, I picked up the glass of milk and made a face as I tasted it. This was not milk. It tasted like I was drinking melted vanilla ice cream, which wasn't a bad thing, just unexpected.

I looked at Eric questioningly and he reached his left hand toward me and plunked four shiny yellow capsules down onto the table.

"What's this?" I asked, curious about what he was giving me.

"Soy milk and cod fish liver supplements," he said simply.

I raised my eyebrows at him requesting more information.

"You need to supplement your Vitamin D since you're not getting any sun."

I was impressed and distressed at the same time. It was thoughtful of him to take care of my health like this, but the way he said it made it seem like I wouldn't be leaving here any time soon. I frowned, "I'll just go sunbathe and solve that problem during the day tomorrow," I said hopefully.

"Good try Sookie, but no, you and I are staying down here together for the next week. I…" he said almost playfully, "am on vacation. Pam is handling the summit for the rest of the week and then I will be taking a few nights off. It's my first vacation as king."

I was aghast at the thought of being down here for seven more days, even if Eric were staying with me. "You mean, you want to stay down here for another whole week? Eric, that's not going to work, I really need to get out of here."

The playful expression left his face, "No. We have this one week and much to discuss."

"So let's discuss it in a hotel room or in your room upstairs, anywhere but here. Please, Eric?" I was close to begging and I hated the sound of it coming out of my mouth, but I wanted to get out.

"No. I need to have you here where you will be safe and not run from me when our discussions become difficult," he said firmly.

"Eric, I promise…"

"No," he growled, "this is not up for discussion Sookie. We are both staying here until sunset six days from now. I will not waver in my decision."

My heart rate had climbed and I was beginning to get angry, "Calm down Sookie, spending time with me should not be such a punishment."

"Eric…" I began, but he cut me off.

"No Sookie, I tried to tell you last night that the Ancient Pythoness warned me that you were in danger, and when I arrived, I could smell at least six fairies in my bedroom and there was the distinct smell of magic on the door." Anger darkened his face; "I made arrangements last night while Hunter was here for the two exits to be guarded day and night. They will not get in here, but I will not allow you to leave this room until we have had a chance to talk."

"I'm not in danger!" I yelled at him, standing up, furious with his obstinacy, and lying through my teeth. I knew I was in danger more acutely than he did. What he didn't seem to know was how well I could defend myself now.

"Yes. You. Are!" he seethed suddenly inches away, glaring down at me. "You smell so unbelievably good that even I had trouble being around you without wanting to rip you open and lick out every drop of your essence until I fed and adapted to your scent. You can read and potentially control vampire minds; you know what a big target that puts on you. On top of all that, fairies are risking war by trying to break down a door in my headquarters to get at you.

"The only thing I can possibly believe is that Niall knows that I found you in Hana, despite my telling him that I couldn't find any sign of a scrios and he doesn't trust me to finish you off myself. He knows the draw the scrios are for vampires and I think he doubts my ability to kill you rather than enjoy you. I am old and strong and he knows that I could take my time with you to elongate the incredible pleasure your blood and body would no doubt bring to me." He was towering over me with such intensity that I took a step back.

"He will kill you on sight Sookie. If you doubt that, and I think you do, you'll be dead before you can say great-grandfather. That is a risk I am unwilling to take."

"Then why haven't you told him who I am? That I'm not just a scrios, but his blood too?" I asked.

Eric looked at me with pity. "Because Sookie, I am concerned that it won't matter to him."

I blanched and he continued, "He knew of you for only a few years and you met just a few times. He has been hunting and fighting scrios for his entire lifetime. He thinks that you are a threat to his people, so I do not believe that he will let a few drops of his blood divert him from destroying an enemy."

A part of me knew he was right, it's the same lesson they'd tried to teach me in Britlin, but Eric's words struck me more personally because he knew Niall and our situation whereas the Britlingens hadn't.

I shook my head, unwilling to fully accept that my great-grandfather would knowingly kill me just because of what I had become. He had loved me, not just my blood…hadn't he?

Frustrated and hurt, I pushed aside my doubts about Niall's love. None of this mattered because I wouldn't allow myself to be caught in a situation where fairies could sneak up on me again and if they did, I would defend myself well enough to get away.

"I can take care of myself Eric."

Fury and aggravation crossed his face, "You can? That's news to me since you certainly didn't take care of yourself in Hawaii Sookie. Do you have any idea how easy it was for me to subdue you?"

My eyes widened, how dare he bring that up in this way? "You arrogant ass! I know exactly how easy it was for you because I let you 'subdue' me. Despite what you saw Eric, I could have defended myself from you just fine if that's what I had wanted to do and I could do it again right now to get out of here if I wanted to hurt you. I'll have you know that you are one of only two people who has hurt or threatened me and mine in the last sixteen years who is not currently a pile of ashes!" I shouted my last few words at him and clenched my hands into fists in anger.

I whipped away from him, needing some space. The memories were too intense. If I were out of here, I would teleport away to somewhere that I could find some freakng peace. Fuck! I had to stop running away, it was a pattern I had to break and now. Instead of running, I crashed down on the chair where I had spent the day, and supported my head on one hand. I hated that he was right and that my instinct was still to run at the first sign of tension.

I heard Eric approach my chair and then felt his cool fingers pick up my free hand that was still fisted in my lap. He turned it over so it was palm up and very gently he brushed open my fingers and caressed my palm. I took a calming breath and swallowed back the urge to pull my hand away from him.

He continued touching my hand, but was silent and deep in thought for a long while before asking, "Sookie, how long have you been able to create fire?"

I raised my head and looked at him, this sounded like a loaded question, but I answered truthfully. "It was one of the first really different abilities I discovered when I left Louisiana, but I didn't learn how to control or use it deliberately until about six months ago."

The silence continued, but it was a tense silence and I looked down at our hands, his larger one running fingertips over my skin again and again in a mesmerizing pattern.

He eventually began to move again. He kept hold of my hand with his but used his free hand to gently tilt my face up toward him so he could see me clearly, his blue eyes searching my face for answers to unspoken questions.

He didn't find what he was looking for so he asked, his voice almost an accusatory whisper, "Why didn't you use the fire to defend yourself when I was hurting you?"

Grief and painful memories flooded through me as I remembered the desperate war I had with myself to hold back my natural defense mechanisms so that I could spare Eric.

He released my face and used both of his hands to curl my fingers into a fist and looked up at me with palpable pain in his eyes. "Your clenched hands…" he opened my hand again and ran a fingertip over the palm where my nails had cut into my flesh, "the one thing that made you talk was opening your hands...you were holding the fire back, fighting to keep from hurting me while I…" horror dawned on his face, "while I tortured you. You were protecting me while I killed you," he growled. He shook me, his fingers now digging painfully into my shoulders, "I killed you Sookie," he growled, "did you know that? Pam had to revive you. I killed you and yet you protected me."

I was speechless. I hadn't had a clue that my body had given up. "Why? Why would you do that? Why would you value my life over your own?" He shook me again, this time more gently than the first, his tormented eyes dissecting mine, trying to read the answer he sought so desperately in my expressions. He was clearly in so much pain from the way he'd hurt me, and I hadn't given him any time to try and understand why I had allowed it to happen before leaving him again. He had to have so many questions about what had happened in the last sixteen years. I had left and hurt him time and again without explanation.

No wonder he was so upset with me. I hated that he wanted to stay here, but now I was beginning to understand where he was coming from. Putting aside his valid concern about my propensity for running, I had taken all control from him by leaving so many times, and this was his dysfunctional way of taking back some of that control.

We were caught up in a cyclone of hurting one another. He had kept vital knowledge for my survival from me, I had left him, he had hurt me, I had left him again and then run from him when I'd promised to return to him and finally he had held me against my will so that we could have this talk.

We were a mess and the blame came from all directions with the end result being that we were both in pain, both hurt, and both unable to fully trust the other.

This couldn't continue.

I sat forward on the chair, removed his hands from my shoulders, and held them briefly between both of mine, feeling their strength. His fingers flinched and then he allowed me to release his hands as I stood up. He watched me warily, deeply disappointed that I would walk away from a discussion that was so important to him. I turned away from him and returned to the table that held the remains of my breakfast, and picked up my white flag.

"Okay," he said quietly, "I'll find a way to have the whole building warded against the fae so we can go up. I'll probably need some of your blood to give to my witch so the ward won't kick you out too. Plus you'll have to keep your scent blocked the whole time, or you'll have every vampire in the building seeking you out. Just please don't walk away from me again Sookie."

I froze, was he really giving in? That had to be a first for Eric Northman. I thought about his offer for a minute before I made my decision.

When I turned back around to him, I held my hand open so he could see the cod liver supplements in my palm and then quickly washed them down two at a time with the soy milk.

The look on his face told me everything I needed to know at that moment. He closed his eyes and dropped his head in relief; the next second, he was by my side.

He pulled me into his huge embrace and held me tight to his chest for a long minute. I held him tighter to me, regretting the pain we had caused one another and knowing that we would hurt each other more before we left this place. The truth was buried deep and it would be painful to dig it out.

He kissed the top of my head and whispered, "Thank you, Sookie."


	31. Chapter 31

A/N: Hi all, sorry this is a little late. The good news is that the next chapter is already halfway done. A huge thanks to my beta, Charhamblin!

Chapter 31 Beginning Again

I stepped back from the embrace, reestablishing our body space. He let me go but the look of relieved vulnerability in his eyes threatened to weaken my resolve. I needed to explain my actions so there were no doubts about what I had just agreed to. I took a deep breath and laced my fingers though his to maintain some form of contact with him.

"Listen Eric, by agreeing to stay here, what I'm saying is that I'm willing to listen to what you have to say," I looked down at our joined hands, "and that I'm aware I have a lot to explain." His fingers tightened on mine and my gaze returned to his. "I can understand your desire to have us some place where we won't be interrupted and I won't be tempted to run. I'm aware that I have a history of doing that, although this," I said gesturing around the room non-verbally expressing my irritation with the situation, "is really extreme."

He clenched his teeth and I could see that he had seen no other option at the time and my fears and lack of ability to trust him hadn't helped the situation at all. I continued, "I know it's your nature to force things into line, but that's never worked with me before and it still won't work with me now. I need to know that you'll listen to what I have to say and that you'll work real hard on throwing away your concept about who I was and start trying to figure out who I am. Because I'm not who you think I am Eric." I saw his face darken and knew he was thinking of when he was trying to force my identity out of me, "What I mean is, I'm still Sookie, but I'm different and not just genetically. I haven't been acting like it recently but I've changed a lot since we last spent time together.

"I don't know if we can fix this…us, but I didn't mourn over you for sixteen years just to throw away a chance to be with you again because I'm scared of the supernatural world and angry at the way you handled a difficult situation." I shrugged and then shook my head sadly, "We both made mistakes, but clearly, you're willing to flex and I will too. I'm willing to give us a chance to get to know one another again."

He nodded, acknowledging my words. His blue eyes were still staring at me and he was holding tightly onto my hand. "You're right Sookie, you have changed in many ways and so have I. Neither of us would have compromised like this or been willing to back down from a fight before. We both have much to learn about the other," he said and brought my hands up to his lips and kissed my knuckles before lowering my hands and leading me to the bed.

I held back and he gave me a confused look. I shook my head at him and looked at the bed.

He smiled widely and raised an eyebrow. "My intent was only to talk, but if you have other ideas..."

I gave a small chuckle, "No Eric, I don't. And let's just avoid the bed altogether while we talk, okay?" I looked around the room, trying to find a good place for us to sit. Eric understood my quandary. There was only one comfortable chair and I didn't want to sit on the bed to have this discussion.

"Wait here," he said and then he was out the door. I heard a few thumps and when the door opened again, the love seat came through, half carried, half pushed by Eric. I moved out of the way and he positioned it along the far side of the room and sat down, motioning for me to join him.

I walked over, eyeing the deep claw marks that crisscrossed the supple leather. Instead of apologizing, I just shrugged, if he didn't want anything damaged then he shouldn't have locked me in here.

Eric looked at the marks, "This," he flicked his fingers at the tattered material, "is replaceable Sookie. You are not. I don't care about furniture."

He tapped his hand gently on the seat next to him and I sat with my back propped on the generous armrest and tucked my feet under me and to the side so that I was facing him.

He moved closer to me and took my hand again, looking at me expectantly.

I sighed, there would only be one way to do this right. "In order to answer your question, I'll need to start at the beginning, so you can understand my…motivations. But Eric, what's done is done, nothing we do here can change the past, all I can do is tell you why I chose to do what I did."

He frowned more deeply but motioned for me to begin.

And so I went back to the beginning, recalling all the details that led me down the pathway that ended with us sitting here struggling to piece together the secrets of our lives so that we could replace the house of cards that held us up now with a more stable foundation for us to hopefully build upon.

"I received an enlightening phone call two days before I left," I began.

"Immanuel," he growled.

We stared at each other, "How did you know?"

"He confessed his actions to Pam when she found a call from him on your cell phone records."

"Is he okay?" I asked in a small voice.

"Yes, I wanted to kill him but it wouldn't have changed anything and he makes Miriam happy so I allowed him to live."

I took another deep breath, "He and Miriam were just trying to help me Eric. I already knew something was terribly wrong, but you weren't telling me anything, plus you had been pulling away from me since Appius arrived."

"It was not his place to discuss anything with you," he said through his teeth.

"You're right. It wasn't. It was yours. You should have told me what was happening and explained the danger I was in so nobody else had to. Why didn't you?"

"There were many reasons, but my primary concern was that you would react badly and get hurt in the process. I was right to fear that obviously."

I stared at him, irritation simmering between us. I could already tell that this wasn't going to be pretty. Here I was spilling my guts to him and he was holding back. I wouldn't let him get away with that for long. I'd unburden myself and then demand the truth from him later. I could only fight a war on one front at a time.

So I manned up and continued, explaining Remy's call, our conversation at the park and the following call from an unnamed friend who confirmed and intensified Immanuel's warning that I was in danger.

Eric, of course questioned me relentlessly to try and get me to identify this person, but I carefully guarded Mr. Cataliades' name, fearful that Eric would exact revenge for the demon lawyer's part in my disappearance. He could tell Eric later if he wanted to expose his actions.

"Didn't you think that this 'person' might have been misleading you, deliberately encouraging you to run to fit into some scheme he or she had set up?"

I blinked in shock, "Well, no, I didn't. I trust this person, everything went according to plan and I've never heard from them again. So there's no reason to assume that duplicity was involved."

"There is always reason to expect duplicity in the supernatural world Sookie. Never take anything someone says to you at face value unless you are willing to bet your life on his or her words," he said seriously.

I knew he was right about always needing to be on guard and I also knew that assuming the worst of people would be the hardest part of reentering the supernatural world for me. I had developed a thicker skin before leaving Louisiana thanks to a long line of people I had trusted proving to me how faithless they really were, but I'd been away from that for a long time and I would have to toughen up some more.

I could easily apply that tougher attitude when dealing with strangers, but I knew that I would have a harder time taking this precaution with former friends and acquaintances. It was obvious that Eric already anticipated that this would be a problem for me and I couldn't fight him on that.

I nodded at him and continued, desperate to get this over with, "You have to understand that all I knew was that the danger was coming from every angle, with the fairies and vampires circling both Hunter and I. Plus all information I had pointed to the fact that you were going to be leaving me in just a few days, and it seemed until I saw you that night after I had made my plans, that you hadn't even cared enough to tell me that I was in danger. I thought at first that you had simply decided to leave me to the circling vultures without even a…ouch!" He had gripped my hand so tightly that I felt my bones rub together.

He released me immediately, but leaned in closer to me, "How could you think that? I had contingency plans mapped out and ready to put into action the second I sensed you were in real danger. No one would ever have put even a finger on you Sookie."

"How could I have known that?" I argued vehemently. "You wouldn't talk to me about it. Even Pam thought I needed to know what was going on and you beat her up to keep her from telling me anything…twice. Can't you see how very real the danger was to me when you combine all those elements? Would you really have wanted me to sit idly by and allow myself and a child to be swept up by God knows who?"

"No, I would have had you trust me enough to know that I would take care of you," he growled.

Eric's body was tense with rage and I should have stopped, but I knew that he had to hear it all if we were going to start with a clean slate. I looked down at my hands, not able to make eye contact anymore; I hated hurting him. My heart wanted to spare him from these details, but my mind knew that he needed to hear them.

"Eric, what could you really have done to stop the forces that would have been put into motion if you did in fact marry Oklahoma and leave me?"

"I would have kept you safe, both of you. I told you that I would figure it out. I told you not to do anything rash. I would have protected you," he said fervently.

"If the dangers were truly what I had been told they were, then you would have failed," I said firmly, finally gathering enough internal fortitude to look back up at him. "You couldn't have protected me from Felipe or another king, you just didn't have the clout Eric."

Eric's face was a picture of shock and anger, I kept my eyes steady on his to reinforce my words.

"You left because you didn't believe I could keep you safe?" he was incredulous and I had to look away as I nodded.

He took me by the arms and pulled me closer to him, "You just got done saying that I had put myself in danger for you more times than you even knew. Why would this time have been any different?"

"Let go of me," I said calmly and he did so right away, but continued to glare at me. "Eric, anytime you were there to protect me directly you never failed to keep me safe, but the people you asked to watch over me always left much to desire. Bill…Alcide…Charles Twining…Bubba. I adore Bubba, but you sent him to protect me from fairies. Really Eric?" I paused a minute, steeling myself. These were the words that would hurt him the most, because I knew how distraught he had been, "And when I needed you most, you were detained by Victor who wasn't even a king. What in the world were you going to do against Felipe and other monarchs?"

I steeled myself against his anger and continued, "Even if I had known about your plans, I wouldn't have been able to rely on you to protect me from afar. I needed to take care of myself for once and I was the only one who could protect Hunter, and so I did."

His eyes were burning me with the intensity of his stare, but I didn't think he was seeing me at all. I held my breath while he processed the implications of my words.

He suddenly stood up and walked away from me. I didn't watch where he went, but I knew he was still in the room since I hadn't heard the door open.

I sat with my hands clenched together and listened for any sign of him for a long time, but I heard nothing until he sat back down next to me.

I hated that I had hurt him, but I didn't apologize, this was a time for hard truths and he had to know that he wasn't all powerful, that he had limitations so he would have an easier time believing that I was safest on my own…then and now.

He didn't take my hand this time, but kept his clenched on his thighs when he said, "Putting aside for the time being the fact that I failed you so completely that you felt you had to fake your death and leave your entire life behind, let's continue."

I took a breath to say…what would I say, what could I say? But he cut me off, "I felt your fear, your death, the bond break and then I tasted your blood and watched the reconstruction. How was that possible? It was so real, so visceral for me that I had no doubts that you were dead. Tell me what happened that night," he demanded.

I would let this go for now, and give him a chance to think this through before revisiting it at some later time, but I would add it to my list of topics to return to later.

So I explained the steps I had taken to prepare the stage as I had been instructed, telling him every detail. I jumped when he grabbed my arm, pushed up my sleeve and ran a finger over the exact spot he had healed from the phlebotomist's needle, closing his eyes and shaking his head slightly.

"I hated lying to you," I breathed, but he didn't open his eyes until I continued my story and explained that I had no clue what I was really walking into in that swamp.

He half-heartedly growled at me, mumbling about me having too much faith in people I didn't know very well or in this case, at all.

"What was I to do Eric? I had nowhere else to turn. I had to do something."

"If you had checked your phone and heard my message or simply called me before stepping into that swamp, I could have told you about the alliance and you could have avoided all of this Sookie. Just one call. Despite my failures, you should have had enough faith in me to make one call," he said quietly, fatigue and grief had replaced his anger and I found that I preferred his anger. Seeing him like this hurt too much.

I was desperate for him to understand, "I couldn't Eric, I couldn't deviate one degree from the plan or I would have gone into a tailspin and lost my courage. My whole being was screaming at me to stay with you, with my friends and all I knew, but I had to keep my eyes forward and my head down. I had to do it for myself and for Hunter."

"Do you have any idea what feeling your fear, your pain and your death did to me Sookie?"

Tears filled my eyes and I blinked them away, trying to clear my vision so I could see him, connect with him, I owed him that much and more. "I know Eric, I felt you. I felt your anguish and your love. Especially since I was sure that something had gone wrong and I really was going to die, I treasured every moment I had you with me."

For the first time, I reached out and placed my hand on his cheek, trying to ease some of his torment, "Thank you. Thank you for staying with me and for loving me until the last second. I was so scared and alone and you were my gravity. Your love wrapped around me and kept me intact. You kept me whole Eric, on the most difficult night of my life."

He put his hands on my cheeks too and we leaned in so that our foreheads touched and we stayed that way for a few minutes, not looking at one another, just feeling the emotions of two very different difficult nights. Tears dropped from my eyes and wet the material of his jeans in perfect circles.

"I always wondered if what I felt for you was love, even after I had declared my feelings to you," he whispered. "I figured it must be love but I had no point of reference beyond what I felt for Pam and a few other friends. What I did know was that you were right for me; your courage, your humor and your ability to love through the worst situations, but I still wasn't sure what to call what I was feeling."

"Then," he faltered, "then the night you died, I felt your fear, your pain and the absolute love you sent me in your most dire of moments, and I knew. I figured it out too late that I had true love with you and I let you slip through my fingers with my carelessness and my fear of threatening your independence and upsetting you with too much 'high-handedness.'

"That's the pattern I had followed most of our relationship; protect you as best I could without pushing so hard that I drove you away. I chose people to guard you who I thought you would not object to, when what I really wanted to do was scoop you up and force you to live with me at my home. I hated that you would rather face such terrible risks to yourself than face living with me.

"I wanted to force you to live a safer life, but I knew you would fight so hard to get away from the perception of being restrained that you would poison yourself against me and probably get yourself into more danger in the process. You would have hated me, even though all I wanted to do was to protect you, someone I cared about more than anyone else, including Pam.

"I didn't follow my instincts that told me I needed to protect you more forcefully and because of that error in judgment…I lost you."

"You don't have to lose me Eric, I'm here now."

"Yes, you're here now because I refused to make that same mistake again."

Okay, I could see where he was coming from with that one. I was about to tell him that I saw his point, but my stomach interrupted with a loud growl.

I could feel Eric smile, his cheeks creased under my hands. I loved the feeling. "Let's complete this part of the discussion tomorrow night. You need more to eat, what would you like?"

It took me a moment to transition from the intensity of our talk to thinking about eating, but when I managed, I realized that I was actually hungry. "Maybe some cereal?"

He raised an eyebrow at me, right-he had no idea how to prepare cereal, and to make it worse, the only kind I had found in the kitchen was instant oatmeal. "Ah, that'll be too hard, how about…"

"I will do it, just tell me how," he said stubbornly.

I smiled at him, finding his obstinacy sweet in this case, "Well, each package has instructions on it, so…"

"Good, I'll be right back," he said and then he was gone, sweeping the table clean of our last meal.

Alrighty then. I stood up and stretched, looking at the empty table. Wait, why hadn't the remains of the fish bothered me? It was nice, I wasn't complaining that's for sure, but it was strange…well maybe not. Maybe it was just another side effect of the iron. Perhaps all full blooded sera fae had such an enhanced sense of smell. If they did, that was one ability I could gratefully do without.

I rolled my shoulders and heard creaks and cracks issue forth from my joints, I had been spending way too much time sitting around and needed to move. I tried jogging in place, but that was absolutely unsatisfying so I changed into a black house cat and ran around the room, leaping, rolling and batting at anything that looked like it could be a toy. The freedom of movement was wonderful and so was the release of the emotional strain these past few hours had taken on me.

Eric took much longer to return than I had anticipated, but I didn't worry, I could hear him in the kitchen banging around. I had just found the shoelace to the black dress shoes he had been wearing last night when the door opened and a very irritated Eric entered.

I abandoned my play and he gave me a quick glance as I turned back into myself just as he was kicking the door closed with a mumbled curse. I had to look twice to realize that the tray he was carrying was actually the top of the kitchen table I had destroyed. On the table were two True Bloods, a glass of soymilk, an apple, a plastic spoon, a roll of paper towels and three very sticky paper bowls with gummy oatmeal covering both the inner and outer surfaces of each bowl. I knew immediately what must have happened and laughed out loud, clapping my hand over my mouth.

"You find this funny?" he asked with a frown. "What is this stuff? It starts as a small volume and then quadruples when I add water and warm it in the microwave. It seemed to come to life, bubbling and reaching for the edge of the bowl, befouling the microwave."

I still had my fingers over my mouth to hide my amusement but it was useless, he could see the humor in my eyes anyway. "Yes, it's funny."

He harrumphed and set the tabletop on the bed, "What's funny is that you're going to eat that," and when he turned around he had a bottle of blood in his hand and a satisfied smile on his lips.

"I would have warned you that you needed a larger bowl if you'd given me a chance, I can't tell you how many times I found the microwave all sticky from Hunter doing the exact same thing to his instant oatmeal."

"I can imagine that he was a challenging child to raise."

"He has a lot of energy, but we channeled it into learning and defensive training. He had it much easier than I did because he learned how to block out thoughts so early on. It really was amazing to see him blossom once he could protect his mind."

I sat on the bed, crossed my legs in front of me and set to work on my meal. It wasn't half-bad once I gathered all the remains into one bowl.

Eric gave me a chance to eat and then slid onto the bed across the table from me and raised his bottle in my direction before taking a long drink, "So…cats, birds, bobcats, bears…me…" he said, slowly licking his lips clean. "Care to explain?"

I blushed and shrugged, "I can shift forms, but I didn't know I could do people until I turned into you."

He was contemplative for a while; drinking his blood and watching me finish my meal. Once I had emptied the bowl and the soymilk, he took the table back to the kitchen.

When he returned, he joined me on the bed, facing me with his legs crossed like mine and his fingers clasped together under his chin. "You called yourself a 'sera fae,' rather than a scrios. Niall never told me that the scrios was a form of fae. How did this happen?" He frowned, "In the swamp, I found both your blood that I was familiar with and the blood you now have. How and why did you change so drastically?"

It had been a nice break, but now it was time to get back to business. "It's a long story," I began.

He tilted his head to the side slightly, "and we are lacking of time?" he asked, a slight smile crossing his lips.

That's a 'no,' I thought as I grabbed a few pillows from the head of the bed and propped my back up against them, settling in to tell a long story.

"Once again, I think it's best to start at the beginning," I said and he swept his hand at me regally, encouraging me to begin. I had to smile at his gesture. It was my first glimpse of him as king.

I was feeling a little silly so I said, "Once upon a time…" with my smile widening.

"What are you doing?"

"That's the way I always began the stories I told Hunter. You might be more familiar with 'Det var en gång...' or other variations on the theme." I said with a shrug of my shoulder.

"I'm familiar with fairy tales. These are stories parents told their children to help them be less sacred about the supernatural elements they didn't understand in the world around them.

"I always found them an entertaining, if not foolhardy means of diluting the truth to allow one's self to have less fear of the boogeyman under the bed." He let his fangs run down and clawed his fingers, "However, the stories often worked to my favor by turning true accounts of supernaturals into stories for children and in so doing, allowed the real details to be discounted along with the fairytale."

That was quite a thesis for the usually stoic Eric Northman, "Oh…well…I never thought of it that way, but I guess that makes sense. I was just being silly since it feels like I'm telling you a bedtime story."

He looked at me for a long while, his eyes now soft and thoughtful, "I like the idea of you raising a son, it sounds as though you enjoyed it."

"I did," I said, settling back more into the pillows, "I loved it in fact. Raising Hunter is the best and most important thing I've done with my life. Well, you know how important he is to me," I said with a shrug.

Eric's smile faded and was replaced by a contemplative look, "No, we will talk of that tomorrow, now I want to hear…a 'faetale'."

"Cute," I said and then I continued. "This is information I've compiled from a variety of sources over the years and while I originally thought it was part of an intriguing story, I now know without a doubt that most, if not all of it is fact. As you said, I've found the monster behind what some viewed as a tale and others as a religion, and it's me this time," I said raising my eyebrow at him and allowing a tiny flicker of fire to form in my palm which I held as far away from Eric as I could.

"Touché," he said, staring at the fire until I willed it to fade.

"Just listen to the story, I'll answer any questions you have later, alright?"

He nodded once, set his bottle on the bedside table and sat patiently, waiting for me to begin.

"Once upon a time," I began again with a small smile, "the mother earth and the sky father joined to create a daughter. They had a number of other children, all who were destined to be powerful gods and goddesses of the sea and sky. This daughter however, was drawn to the land and in particular, to fire. She stayed close to the fires for so long, that instead of becoming a water goddess, she took on the attributes of a fire goddess instead."

I could tell from Eric's expression that he knew where this was leading, but I continued, "In time, Pele became the goddess of fire and volcanoes, combining her new nature with that of the mother earth. Unfortunately, Pele's temperament was that of violent emotional eruptions fueled by jealousy and ambition followed by regret and atonement. Her reckless actions angered those around her and put her in grave danger.

Pele's elder sister, Kamohoali'I, a water goddess, refused to accept her new nature and Pele was driven away from her home. Some accounts say that Pele stole away the husband of Kamohoali'I and others tell that in a fit of jealousy, Pele destroyed the sacred forests of her people. I think both are reasonable explanations, but I'm relatively positive that the second is true.

Whatever the reason, Pele fled her home and began a new life on a mountain top where her sister's water couldn't reach her, and from there, she created the islands of Hawaii. Her volcanic eruptions were only halted when her sister combined forces with another of Pele's nemeses, the sky and snow goddess, Poliahu, and with the use of water and snow, they finally snuffed out Pele's fire. Their battle rages on till this day, with the water and sky goddesses balancing out the violent rages of the fire goddess.

"If these events were inclusive of themselves, they would have no bearing on me, but they're not and they do.

"Pele, Kamohoali'I and Poliahu all procreated and passed down not only their genes, but their vendetta as well.

"Now, I'm sure that you probably know that the descendants of gods and goddesses became the 'supernatural' beings of this and other worlds."

Eric nodded, "Well, in time, the descendants of Kamohoali'I and Poliahu became the sky and water fairies and Pele's descendants became the sera fae."

Eric's eyes widened with a look of dawning comprehension and I nodded at him to reinforce my words.

"From what I've learned, Pele's actual nature changed by accepting what is called the 'pa' or the beginning of a change and by the time she had reached her full 'mana,' or power, she was something completely different from her siblings. That's why her descendants aren't fairies, but another form of fae, the sera fae or fire fae.

"So the battles wage on with the sera fae often inciting the rage of the fairies through their tempestuous acts, and in the young, explosive and uncontrollable powers." I shrugged at him, "This is what I was dealing with when you came to Hana and it's the reason I had to leave you to train."

Eric was staring at me avidly, I could see him struggling to hold back a thousand questions. "I'm done," I said, grateful that he had waited to ask anything until I had finished the main part of the story.

"Where did you go? Who trained you?"

"Some distant relatives who have taken on the responsibility of training sera fae to defend themselves."

"Who, Sookie?"

The fact that the Britlingens were actually part fae was widely known in their dimension but the supernatural community here knew next to nothing about them, and this was exactly the way they wanted it. Eric didn't need to know where I'd gone, but I was pretty sure that he would figure it out once he saw my weapons skills and my use of their armor.

"I went to Britlin," I said, making up my mind.

Eric's eyes widened again and he tensed, "You left this dimension and were trained by the Britlingens for a year?"

I nodded and realized my error. "I guess if I had told you that before, you might have believed me when I said I could take care of myself, huh?"

"Perhaps, but I still wouldn't have been willing to risk your safety until I saw your skills for myself."

"At some point, you're going to have to take my word at face value Eric."

"As will you," he said pointedly. "Where is your maker, your parent from this line and why did they not help you?"

"I have no idea who my 'makua' is, that's what we call our makers. Apparently sera fae don't stick around once they create their line."

"Explain," he said flatly.

I gave a small sigh and delved into the unique means of procreation of the sera fae.

"I recall reading that Pele's sister was hatched from an egg, but there is no excuse to leave a young one without guidance. Even vampires don't voluntarily leave a child to fend on his or her own." He was incensed that my line was more barbaric than his and the thought of vampires being more nurturing than the sera fae gave me the shivers.

"What exactly was the trigger that activated your dormant sera fae genes?"

I pulled myself back together then looked away from him briefly before gazing back into his beautiful eyes, "Deciding to leave, taking full ownership of my life and my future and leaving my former life behind."

He accepted this knowledge without complaint, "It's not so different from how vampires procreate. We share the magic of our blood with another and so change them in every way except for their physical form which remains the same. Why do you think your physical appearance has changed since you entered this room."

I hadn't thought about it much, but when I took a minute to piece together the details, they all fell into place.

"Ha, interesting."

"What?"

"Well Pele said that…"

"You spoke with Pele herself?" Eric said, his mouth open. That was a look I rarely saw on him.

"Yes," I said, shaking my head. "She stopped her son from ripping my head off when I was on Oahu."

Eric growled so loudly that I jumped, "Eric, this is my life. This is the way it is. The fairies hate me because I have sera fae blood and most of the sera fae hate me because I have fairy blood. That's why I have been so careful to train both Hunter and myself in all forms of defense and why it was so important to hide Hunter's identity until he could protect himself."

Eric frowned but nodded, "What did Pele tell you?"

"She said that once a full human who carries the sera fae genes accepts the pa, they change in every way except for their corporeal form, similar to what you were saying about vampires. She said that sera fae blood triumphs over all over blood with the exception of fairy and Britlingen blood. There may be more exceptions, but they haven't found them yet."

"So you think that because you have fairy blood, your corporeal form took on the fairy characteristics when the human in you died?"

I pierced him with an intense look, "What?" I asked, my voice cracking, "What did you say?" but my mind was still spinning even as he repeated his words. Oh my God, he was right. The human in me had actually been not just changed, but replaced, and in the process, she died. "That's why my invitation didn't matter anymore in Oakland and why Hunter's rescinding of my invitation failed. I purchased the home, so the magic died with me."

"Shhh, Sookie. You aren't dead; you've just evolved into a different kind of life form." Eric said as he moved closer and wiped tears I hadn't been aware of from my cheek. He looked at the tear and then slowly pressed his thumb onto his pants, transferring the tear into the fabric. I frowned, wondering why he didn't want to taste it.

I shook my head, irritated with myself. This was stupid. I knew I wasn't dead. I guess it was simply a shock to learn that I wasn't even a tiny bit human anymore.

"I'm fine," I said with a bite to my words and then I smiled at him to let him know I wasn't upset with him, but myself and then I got back on track. "Yes, so when you brought me here, where there's so much iron and especially because it was hot, my fairy characteristics were suppressed, leaving me with my original form."

"Your appearance is variable anyway with your ability to shift so easily, do you think that this is really your true form or simply the one you take out of comfort and habit?"

"Ew, that's unsettling…maybe I should naturally have another form, but if that's true than I'm happy that I gravitate toward my human form, all sera fae apparently do so. The Britlingens don't shape shift, so we didn't talk about the theory much. We just worked on increasing the speed of my shifts and utilizing the skills of various animals to meet specific needs," I said with a shrug.

"It'll be interesting to see if you revert back to the fairy characteristics when we leave here."

I shrugged. I didn't care one way or another except that I probably fit in better the way I looked now than I did when I looked more like a fairy.

We stared at one another for a while, "I like you like this," he said, running a finger across my cheekbone and then he smiled guiltily, "but I like you the other way too. It doesn't matter to me how you look, so long as I have you with me Sookie."

"Thank you," I whispered, "we'll find out soon enough."

I placed my hand over his and pressed it to my cheek and nestled into his palm. I always felt so safe with his big hands holding me. He raised his other hand and ran his fingertips along my opposite eyebrow and then cupped my other cheek and ran his thumb along my lips. My mouth opened reflexively and I felt the stirrings of desire begin to build, and then his hands were gone and he was sitting back from me again.

I gave him a confused look, which he returned with an innocent smile. He glanced at his watch, "Sookie, there are a few things I want to take care of before dawn."

"What time is it?" I asked, we couldn't have been talking for twelve hours yet.

"It's just after midnight," he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and working on it for a few moments.

"Tomorrow," he said looking at me with gentle eyes, "I hope you'll stay, but if you need to leave, tell Victor to open either the north or the west exit," he said pointing toward each exit as he spoke.

I squeezed his hand tightly, "Thank you, Eric."

His expression was slightly sad as he said, "If you do leave, please try and wait for me, but if you can't, then take my sword and get away from here as fast as you can."

I nodded, and then remembered something. "I plan to stay down here with you, but will you ask your witch if she can ward the building anyway? I don't want anyone at risk because they're protecting me, I won't be able to relax down here knowing that they're out there."

"That was my next task to accomplish before dawn," he said and I smiled widely at him.

"I'll give you some of my blood now so she can do it right away," I offered happy this was going so smoothly.

He looked down at my wrist and for the briefest moment, his eyes glazed over and his tongue darted out reflexively but then he pulled himself back together and nodded. I heard him mumble something about getting me a cup as the door was swinging shut behind him.

Oh crap. I guess since being around me was difficult for him then being near my flowing blood would be incredibly tempting to him. I closed my eyes and gave a tired little laugh, it's always one thing after another, but I guess this was something we would have to hurdle sooner or later.

Eric returned carrying two cups and a large Ziploc bag. He handed the empty cup to me and kept the one full of blood for himself. Given the slight blood moustache he was sporting, I figured he had already chugged another one in the kitchen.

I chuckled at the sight of him; he looked like a little kid.

"What?" he asked, clearly not finding this situation funny.

"You have a blood moustache," I told him, running a finger across my top lip.

He frowned, chugged the cup of blood and then proceeded to lick the remains from his mouth with his nimble tongue, making sure that he got it all. "Better?"

I had to remind myself to breathe, "Yes," I answered, irritated at my response to an action he hadn't even intended to be sexy. "Do you really think you should be here for this?"

"I have tasted your blood before," he said his eyes darkening.

Right. How could I possibly forget him slicing my cheek, tasting my blood and spitting it on the floor in disgust, not of the blood but of who he thought I was? I could still see the look of absolute revulsion on his face and hear the…

"Sookie?" I looked up at him, blinking myself out of my memories, "Don't," he said quietly, regret and pain reaching out to me from his sad eyes.

I nodded. "How much does she need?" I asked, taking the cup from him and rolling up my sleeve.

"I called her when I was in the kitchen," he said pulling his phone from his pocket and placing it on the table, making it clear that I was welcome to use it if I needed to. "She'll be able to do it before sunrise tonight. She says that because I want such a large area warded that she'll need about half a cup. Typically it only takes a few drops to work."

He grimaced apologetically at me and took a step closer, staring at my wrist, and swallowed, "Do you want me to…"

I laughed, forced fangs to form in my own mouth and bit my wrist. Oh, shit, I forgot how much that hurt. I grimaced at the pain and placed my wrist above the cup on the table, allowing the blood to dribble down into it while I caught my breath.

Eric's eyes widened, his fangs ran out and he groaned deeply. Whether it was at the sight of my fangs, me biting myself or the blood, I don't know, but the look on his face was a mixture of shock and desire.

I kept my eyes firmly on his; not trusting his reactions, and only looking away for a split second to check that the cup had enough. I could already feel the wound healing, and when it was almost closed and it had stopped dripping, I found myself in a predicament.

What now? I could rinse the blood off in the bathroom, wipe it off with a towel, lick it off myself, but I knew what I wanted to do with it.

I raised my eyebrows and held out my wrist out to him, "Care to tidy up?" I asked, and my heart rate increased slightly at the thought of his mouth on me again.

He stood staring at me with wide eyes and flared nostrils, but his jaw was tight. He took a jerky step in my direction and then stopped. I watched him cautiously as he fought for control. My heart rate increasing even further.

Finally he seemed to resolve something and he began to move more smoothly. He walked right past me to the table where he secured the cup of my blood in the Ziploc bag and then unwound a paper towel from the roll and then returned to my side.

"Put...a little on your finger," he said, his voice rough and his accent more pronounced than usual.

Confused, I ran the tip of my index finger through the blood and then looked at him.

He didn't return my gaze, his eyes were fixated on my wrist, his face intent as he used the towel to clean up my blood, gently wiping until every trace was gone. He took the towel into the bathroom and I heard the toilet flush and then he was back and his expression was much more relaxed.

"What was that all about?" I asked, but he ignored me and took my hand in his, brought my index finger to his lips and I watched, fascinated as his tongue darted out and wrapped around my finger. We both groaned, me at the feeling of his soft tongue on my finger and…well, it was obvious why he was groaning.

I moved closer to him, my finger still in his mouth and ran my free hand along his cheekbone and then laced my fingers through his silky hair. His eyes were closed and he hummed with pleasure at my touch, and then he released my finger and stepped away again.

"Thank you, that was…it was...you are unbelievably exquisite," he said quietly.

"Why didn't you take more," I asked, that's what was unbelievable.

He squeezed his eyes closed tight and shuddered at my question, "No, not until we finish our discussion and reach agreements on many important issues. I shouldn't have taken what I did, but the offer of your already flowing blood was too tempting to resist."

"Is that why you keep pulling away from me?"

"Yes. I won't allow us to be sidetracked from our reason for being here," he said, more determined now.

"Oh. Well…I guess that makes sense." We did have a lot to work through, but I couldn't believe he would hold his ground the whole week if we continued to make progress the way we had been doing so far.

And that brings up our next topic. But first I need to take this up to Maeve," he said, gesturing at my blood. "Would you like to come?"

I shook my head, "No, I'll stay here," I said and he took the cup in the bag, gave me a long look that had me catching my breath and left the room.

Wow, I had missed that look, it made me feel all giddy. It took me a few minutes to calm down and then I took this time alone to freshen up and brush my teeth.

By the time I had finished up in the bathroom, Eric had returned. I found him standing with his shoulder propped against the wall and one leg crossed over the other. He looked like a GQ model. He even had the broody eyes going at the moment.

He stepped toward me, hand outstretched and took me to the love seat where he encouraged me to sit down.

Uh oh, I could already tell that I wasn't going to like whatever he was going to tell me.

He sat with one leg bent in front of him on the seat and the other foot on the floor so he could face me straight on. He took my hands again. Oh crap.

"Tell me about what you were doing when I awoke this evening," he said, staring at me intently.

Okay, that wasn't where I thought this was going.

"I was going to talk to you about this anyway. I'm sorry, I know I was being rude, looking in your mind without your consent, but it started out as a mistake." I explained what had happened and when I told him that I had come upon his dream, he squeezed both my hands tightly. I wiggled my fingers and he relaxed his grip, but his intensity remained.

"Vampires do not dream," he said, but I could tell that he was already questioning that belief.

"I don't know about others, but you do. It was an odd dream, more like a very detailed replaying of an event than the sketchy dreams humans have."

"What did you see?" he asked quietly and I felt bad for him. He hated being out of the loop on anything, especially things that he thought or felt.

"You were dreaming about the trial at the summit. I saw most of the action from when you walked in until you were on your way here." I smiled at him, letting him know that I had heard his thoughts about me. I caressed his smooth hand with my thumb, "Thank you for standing up for my character at the trial and for rushing here to save me," I said with a smile. "I'm surprised the Pythoness wanted to help me, I figured that she hated me."

"It appears that she's definitely a fan," he said distractedly. I watched as his small smile slowly faded from his face and he became still, entering what almost looked like down time, with the exception of his active eyes. I could actually see him thinking intently from the small movements of his eyes. I waited patiently for what felt like twenty minutes and finally he returned to me.

He appeared to steel himself and his grasp on my hands tightened, "Sookie, Pam tells me that you are still suffering from the injuries I caused you in Hawaii."

I gasped and tried to pull away, this was so out of left field. His grip on my hands remained firm. "Talk to me Sookie. She says you no longer will deliberately open you mind to vampires. I want to help you."

"Eric, I thought we weren't going to talk about this until tomorrow," I said, grasping for an escape button from where this conversation was going.

"We will, in the main, but this is something we must discuss before dawn."

"Why?" I asked, irritated that a little bit of panic was coming though in my voice. I took a deep breath and tried again, "I would rather we end the night on good terms, talk about easier topics so I don't worry about it all day while you're sleeping."

"That's my point Sookie. You are tired. You say sera fae don't need to sleep, but as we have been discussing, you are not all sera fae. Even though the fairy in you is suppressed, you still need to have a source of energy and the food, although it has been helping you, is not enough. You need to sleep."

"I've tried Eric and all I end up doing is staring at the ceiling. In Britin I didn't sleep for the last three months, not at all."

He looked surprised, but recovered quickly, "That my be, but you are in a different environment now and since we both want to stay here for a few more days, it is imperative that you recharge your energy through sleep. I saw how you pull energy from the land, you don't just get it from the iron, you need more."

He was right, I pulled energy from the land, sky and water, and being down here was wearing me out in so many ways.

"What's your suggestion?" I asked with a small sigh, I did want to stay here with him, we were making progress.

"I believe that if you were to link with my mind," I started to interrupt and tell him that I wasn't interested but he held up a hand, "If you were to link with my mind, I could think of something that you find peaceful, something that you could latch onto and when I am pulled into sleep by the dawn, I believe that you will join me in rest."

I blinked in surprise at the brilliant simplicity of his plan. I was sure that it would work if I could get myself to relax enough to let it. What could go wrong really? If it didn't work, I could shut out his mind and then I would just spend the day relaxing, maybe I'd watch a movie or read a book.

If it did work though, I could finally rest. I had to admit that I really missed sleeping, waking and feeling rejuvenated. I missed the break from my thoughts, the ability to let go for a few hours. If it worked, it would be a huge relief.

"Sookie?" Eric said, running his fingers along my cheek, "Sookie, I will not push any thoughts on you, I will only think about the things we determine would be relaxing to you."

I had to let go of my anxieties about this, but to do so, I needed to have a clearer understanding of what had happened.

"This evening, when you woke up, could you feel me in your mind?" I asked, taking his hand that was still caressing my face, and running the pad of his thumb absentmindedly over my lips.

"Yes, not as clearly as I was able to before, but I had a sense that you were there. Why?"

"Well. Pam didn't know when I was in her mind until I communicated with her that way, no one else has ever been able to feel me read their mind. Why could you? And more to the point, why couldn't I shut you out?"

"I think the answer to that is an easy one Sookie. I think it's because I have had your blood many times, but more importantly, I had it right before you opened your mind to me. Try it again now that I've had some more of your blood, and I bet it will be clearer to me that you're attempting to get into my mind."

I hesitated and then gasped as Eric scooped me up and put me on his lap so I was sitting with my feet on his left side. He pulled me close to him, cradling my head against his chest. I melted against him and felt tension seep out of my body almost immediately.

"You don't have to tell me why this is hard for you, I understand. I know what I did to you and can imagine how it must have felt when you couldn't shut me out. You are an amazingly strong woman to have survived those nights with not just your body intact, but your whole being as well. Twice now you have kept yourself whole through events that would have destroyed so many others."

I pressed myself closer to him, remembering the care he gave me in the weeks following the fairy war, he had been so gentle and patient with me.

I tried to line everything up so I could work through my fears, but I couldn't find them when I was held so lovingly in his arms. I couldn't figure out why I had been so scared when I now felt so safe with him.

"Trust me Sookie…please," he added at the end.

It was the please that had me releasing my preconceived notion that there was something to fear and smiling into his chest.

The question was, did I believe that he wouldn't use our connection against me again. The answer was yes. I did trust him, and he and I were the only ones who mattered now. I had been fighting against a shadow and some childhood memories for so long that I had allowed my fears to take on a greater relevance in my mind than they deserved. It was the unknown that I had feared, and the fact that we hadn't had any time to talk after it was all over hadn't helped at all. This wasn't scary like I had expected it to be, it was easy, natural. This was right.

I felt Eric tense with my hesitation, so I decided to lighten the mood. I lowered my voice and said into his chest, "Yield to me Sookie," in a poor imitation of the sexiest voice I have ever heard.

He chuckled and the sound reverberated though his chest. It was a comforting feeling that made me feel even more safe and grounded. I pressed my ear tighter to his chest.

"Sookie?"

I sighed, loving the sound of my name rumbling under my ear. Reluctantly I removed my head from his chest and looked up at him. He was gazing down at me with deep and compassionate eyes.

"Let's try it," I said and we smiled at one another for just a moment before his hands ran up my arms and cupped my face, tilting my chin up so that his lips gently caressed mine. My hands mirrored his, winding through his hair and I opened my mouth just enough to lightly run my tongue along his smooth lower lip. He groaned and then pulled back, giving me one more quick kiss.

"We have work to do," he said, shaking his head clear and guiding me off his lap.

I ground my teeth together and fought back a growl of my own. I was frustrated that he was still holding off physical contact until we could finish some mental checklist of topics he wanted to discuss.

I sure as hell hoped I slept the day away, because tomorrow night couldn't come fast enough for me.

0-0-0-0-0

A/N: The next chapter is already looking to be one of my odd ones, so maybe have a glass of wine before you read it :)


	32. Chapter 32

A/N: Sending out a huge thanks to all who serve or have served our country and to their families. We are grateful for all you do and give!  
>My personal thanks to my wonderful Beta, Charhamblin for catching what my eyes no longer see after reading and re-reading and for helping me keep my head on straight when my imagination runs away with me.<p>

Ah yeah, maybe that glass of wine is needed after all... ;)

Chapter 32  
>Remorse<p>

The door to the bathroom opened and a cloud of steam poured out, followed in about a minute by Eric, still somewhat damp and dressed in black boxer briefs and a t-shirt. His hair was wet and hung in dark blond strands over his shoulders. I could see where he had run his fingers through it after rubbing it dry with a towel.

I had changed into a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt, and had retired my bra and panties for the day in the hopes that being more comfortable would help me sleep.

I swallowed my few nerves when Eric stepped toward me with a slight smile. "Are you ready?" he asked, running a hand up and down my arm.

"Yes, but isn't it really early for you?", we still had about an hour and a half before sunrise.

"I wanted to give you time to practice and get comfortable," his hand kept moving in hypnotic patterns that now included my back and upper neck, I couldn't help but relax. "Have you had enough to eat?"

I nodded, "Yes, you?"

He smiled, "I am more than satisfied," he said, his eyes consuming me as they swept over my newly exposed skin. I suddenly felt naked in this t-shirt in comparison to the many layers I had been wearing up until now, but it didn't bother me. In fact, I liked the way he was looking at me, it made me feel desired and when combined with the way he was caring for me, it made me feel treasured. I hadn't felt that in an incredibly long time except for the few precious hours we'd had together in Hana.

I smiled back at him and we stood, staring into each other's eyes until he said, "Are you agreeable to practicing in the bed? he said, gesturing toward the bed with his head. "That way, if it works quickly, we won't fall asleep on the love seat."

I nodded and we made our way to the bed, each of us entering from a different side and then we moved in so our hands touched in the middle.

Eric pushed both of the king sized pillows together so they met seamlessly, making one long pillow and then grasped both of my hands in his and began to kiss my fingers.

"What shall I think about? What relaxes you most?" he asked, his lips barely brushing my skin as he spoke.

Well this was pretty darn good, but I was sure that if he kept kissing my hands, I wouldn't get anywhere near sleep. So I thought about where I would want to be if I could be anywhere.

"Being by the ocean, under the open sky…with the waves rolling up onto the land. That's what I find most relaxing," I answered quietly.

He was thoughtful for a moment, "Pam said she found you resting on the cliffs at the edge of your land on Maui. Is this a where you would like me to think about? Or perhaps you would prefer the small inlet where you were healed? I can recall both perfectly for you."

"The cliffs at my home would be best," I answered. The inlet had too many other associations to be completely relaxing in this situation.

"Give me a few minutes to get the scene set in my mind first. I'll let you know when I have it and then I'll do it again so you can enter my mind when you are ready."

"Wait," I said quickly.

"Are you nervous," he asked caressing my hand.

"No, but you need to know that if I fall asleep with my mind open to you, I might see some of your dreams again," I admitted. Surely there were a lot of things he wouldn't want me seeing. He had to know that there was a risk that I would see more than he intended.

He frowned slightly, "I know you heard some of my thoughts last night, but as far as I am aware, I don't dream. I fall asleep and wake a second later, there is no delay for me, but I would be intrigued to learn what I think about about, perhaps I simply review what I did the night before." He shook his head, "It means nothing to me, so don't let it worry you, I know you aren't prying," he said with a wink and then he closed his eyes.

Well if it didn't bother him, then I wouldn't let it bother me. I gazed at his perfect face, I loved the sight of his eyelashes touching his cheeks, it made him seem so vulnerable and fragile and each time I saw it I was amazed at the trust he showed me by closing his eyes in my presence.

About two minutes later, his eyelids opened and his bright sapphire eyes were staring right into mine, into my soul. I took a quick breath at the intensity of his gaze.

"I'm ready," he said, but I continued staring at him, unable to disengage. "I promise Sookie, I won't force anything on you. Let go."

I gave him a small smile, his words bringing back another time that he asked me to trust him with my mind when he was trying to help me. I nodded slightly and closed my eyes, relaxing into the pillow and for the first time since I allowed Eric to glamour me while the stake was being removed from my side, I let myself go.

E~

I watched as she finally relaxed her body, her eyes closing and the small smile slowly fading from her beautiful lips, it would take her longer to relax her mind and enter mine. This was a new experience for both of us, I was used to controlling other people's minds through glamour, but this was more a sharing of my mind than trying to control hers. I just wanted to help her relax and then pull her into sleep with the sunrise.

The thought of holding her in my daytime rest challenged me on so many levels. I'd been fighting a losing battle with myself to resist touching her more than necessary, but I was determined that we would not fall into our old pattern of following the desires of our bodies into a bliss that makes it so difficult for either of us to think clearly.

I needed her to be honest with me, to tell me exactly what she was thinking and feeling and she couldn't do that if she was in a sex induced haze or worrying about hurting my feelings. I also needed her to be in a mental frame of mind where she could feel free to get angry with me if she needed to. That's when she would really let me know what she's thinking.

She had always kept things back from me, sometimes to protect herself and at other times, to protect me. This had to stop. We needed to dig up the diseased parts of our relationship and inspect it, not just reaffirm how compatible we were physically.

I knew I was being hypocritical, I had yet to fully open up to her, but we needed to get through the coming discussions before I bared my soul to her, I didn't want my feelings to influence her. She had to make the choice to be with me based solely on her own emotions or she would later regret it.

Of course, she must have already had at least a glimpse of the intensity of my love and need for her when she witnessed my dream, but I didn't think she fully understood how essential she was to my life.

Giving up touching her, kissing her and enjoying more of her blood was beyond difficult, especially when she responded so sweetly and generously. It was probably the most self-control I had employed since I was young, but it would all be worth the effort and then some if we could come through this together.

I would have loved to let go of my restraint and accept the intimacy she had offered me when she tried to deepen our kiss...her tongue had swept across my lip and left a trail of fire in its wake. I desperately wanted more, needed more.

I could almost feel her warm breath against my lips as I welcomed her with a gentle nibble to her lower lip and a sweep of my tongue against her hot, sweet…

"Ah, Eric? That's not going to work to help me relax," she said, laughter brimming in her voice. Oops, I had been so distracted by my thoughts that I'd missed her entering my mind.

I opened my eyes to see humor playing across her face. I was so relieved to see her happy once again that I smiled back at her, touching the lips I had been daydreaming about with the tip of my finger. It had troubled me that she had been so serious and severe for most of our first night together.

"Sorry," I said allowing a little bit of sly humor to slip through into my voice, "my mind took an unauthorized excursion."

She laughed slightly, "If I didn't know that you were all for us holding off on that type of recreation, I would think that you were playing dirty with me."

"Totally unintentional, I assure you, but how could anyone blame me?" I said giving her a quick kiss on the tip of her nose. "Now, back to the ocean." It was hard to focus with her gentle pressure on my mind, but I forced myself to lock away every other thought and only allow my memories of her land on Maui to be active.

I closed my eyes again and focused in on the feel of the ground beneath my feet…

_I placed the sole of my bare foot on the grass, it was wet from the most recent sprinkle of rain. The blades of the grass were slim and supple, but dense and wildly growing at their base from the almost daily brief showers on this part of the island. My foot sunk deeper than I had expected before it hit the ground and the gnarled base of the grass poked at my sensitive instep._

_I walked across the lawn, only feeling the thick grass, the cooler earth and the occasional pebble or twig until my next step took me out onto the cliff. The rocks here were smooth and had cooled from the warm day, their temperature now matching mine. My feet perceived every indentation, scratch and small pocket of water._

_These were volcanic rocks that had been worn smooth over the millennia by water, wind and temperature. I could almost see the battle raging on under my feet, Pele's violent eruptions of molten lava spewing forth, creating the land until she was halted and cooled by the two goddesses who combined water and snow to turn her anger into this firm rock upon which I was now standing._

_Every nook and cranny of the earth below me told a part of the story of Hawaii's history and so told my Sookie's history. I loved this land for the connection it offered me to her._

_But her story was richer than that of the rocks alone, I now focused on my skin and felt the breeze blowing across my body. I raised my arms slightly and allowed the air to hug my outline, licking along rarely touched receptor cells and bringing them into full awareness._

_I turned my head slightly so that I could feel the air in both ears at the same time, the vibrations causing a drumming sound and allowing me to identify the exact direction of the source of the wind. I felt as though I were flying, it was familiar and refreshing. Was there another god or goddess out there bestowing this relief upon me? I gave my thanks just in case._

_I readjusted my head so that I could hear the waves crashing on the shore. Through the music of the constantly rushing water, I could hear one wave cresting as the prior wave was dripping from the rock face below me. In between the crashes of the water, I could hear air bubbles bursting forth from the sand, creating little nail holes that would dot the beach below._

_Again and again, the cycle continued in a steady rhythm that mimicked Sookie's breath when she was deeply asleep. There was great comfort in the predictability of the cycle._

_Crest…rush…crash…pop-drip-pop; crest…rush…crash…pop-drip-pop, always the same, never changing. It was one of the few constants in a world where everything changed but me._

_I took a deep breath as a wave was crashing below me and the scent of salt water filled my nose. I identified seaweed drying on the rocks, decaying fish and iodine. I also caught the scent of what I thought was plumerias on the wind, almost like the smell of sweet peaches and apricots._

_Finally, I opened my eyes and took in the view above me. The sky was so littered with stars that it couldn't be called black; it was more a light gray with white swirls where the stars were most densely congregated. It was the last quarter of the moon, so the stars were especially bright and I could clearly see Cygnus and Pegasus almost directly above with Persues, Ursa Minor and Cetus further toward the horizon, all depicting legendary and mythological beings. I wondered about what the Hawaiians saw in the sky at night and if Sookie's forbearers were depicted there._

_I looked to the side and saw Sookie standing beside me, the starlight shining off her blond hair and glittering in her eyes. She looked up at me and held out her hand. I took it, winding my fingers through hers and used my other to pull her tight to my chest. One breath corrected my impression; the scent I had thought was from a plumeria flower was in fact Sookie. I hummed into her hair, completely content to be here with her._

_We stood there together, watching, listening, feeling, smelling, sharing, being, loving._

_As the moon set in the sky, the ocean appeared to be silver glass with the light of the stars and moon reflecting off it in the distance. Closer to shore the crashing waves were like jagged ice tumbling toward the rocks._

_The great ocean lured me to it, beckoning, tempting and welcoming me with the promise of a cool embrace. The pull became stronger, taking with it all sensation; I could not escape. I wound my mind and my fingers tightly around Sookie, holding her close, and we became one as we were pulled into oblivion together._

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

For over a thousand years, I had closed my eyes and the next second opened them again to find myself exactly where I expected to be. One of the few exceptions to that rule was the day Sookie woke me in Rhodes to flee the building that was falling down around us. It was shocking and disorienting, but the events made sense and I was able to force my body to comply as we saved Pam and then ourselves from the dissolving building.

This time when I woke, I was split in two pieces. One part was where it should be, on the bed where I had fallen asleep. I think Sookie was in my arms, but my body was sluggish and I couldn't open my eyes to confirm my suspicions.

That was just a small part of my consciousness. The rest and most dominant part of my being had been stolen away as I slept and was no longer in bed or standing on the cliffs with my love but standing in a familiar bathroom, about to wash my hands. I looked in the mirror, there was nothing notable about my appearance that would give me any idea of what was going on, but I had a sick feeling in my chest. Suddenly I was hit by a wave of panic as everything came crashing together. I was about to wash my hands to remove any traces of Sookie's tears from them.

I looked back up at the man in the mirror, to see grim determination etched across his face and I could feel his anger and excitement that this moment had finally arrived.

No. No. No, this couldn't possibly be happening…but I knew that somehow, it was. I watched from an omniscient yet powerless vantage point as I washed my hands thoroughly and used a soft, light green towel to dry my hands and walked out of the room, knowing with absolute horror what I would see.

How only my mind could have been taken back in time, I didn't know but it had. I didn't have a body here, but if I had, I would have thrown myself to the ground to beg the powers that be to intervene and stop this from happening again. As it was, I begged in my mind, tried again and again to put myself in front of her to shield her from the future that awaited her, but I was unable to interact physically in this world. I could hear with my true body, stuck back in the bed, my inefficient mumblings, but I was unable to help my love in any way.

Her eyes snapped up to look at her attacker…who am I kidding, she looked up at me and I saw it. How could I possibly have missed the relief and trust in her eyes when she first saw me? Even though I had already hurt her and brought her to this cottage and restrained her, she was relieved to see me. Why hadn't I seen it? The future could have been altered in that moment if I hadn't been so blind with rage and hatred that I had missed such a clear sign of her identity.

I watched the scene play out before me, tormented by the fact that not only could I see Sookie through my eyes, I could see myself through hers. At the same time, I could hear the thoughts that ran through each of our minds and feel the sensations from both our bodies. It was overwhelming, terrifying and all I could do was lay impotently here in this bed while this horror was happening all over again, thousands of miles away.

I tried to wind myself around her to comfort her, but she could not feel my presence and at the same time I was overwhelmed by pain, fear and grief as I lived her memories of looking into my hate-filled eyes, hearing my venomous words and feeling my intense loathing for her through my pitiless hands.

With my true body, I felt her try and push away from me and I swore I could hear her cry out in pain. Could she have been pulled away from her body and taken back to this time with me? If so, that meant that she was suffering this all over again. My guilt and regret for her pain then and now was more than I could bear.

The sight of my face, twisted in hatred and aimed at her cut out my heart and I hated myself even more for the multitude of ways I had hurt this woman I cherished. I desperately fought to break free from this spell and get back to my body so I could do something to help her, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't rip myself free.

I couldn't alter the devastation I wrought upon us, but through it all, I was amazed to feel and hear the workings of Sookie's amazing mind. Beneath her intense emotions which were focused on surviving my attempts to slowly kill her was a steady current of courage bolstered by an undeniable conviction that she would sustain the path she had set into motions with the end goal being to save her son. Her love and fear for him was greater by far than anything she felt for herself and was almost matched by her determination to protect me. Me. Her self-sacrifice made me sick.

I was bowled over time and again by waves of power that lashed through her body trying to get her to protect herself, but she would not relent, frequently giving up her chance at fighting for survival by battling with herself. The effort she was required to put forth while under such duress was unfathomable and I roared in fury as she once again handed her life over to me.

As difficult as it was for me to experience those nights through her eyes, I knew that if her mind was truly here with me, that she must be having an even harder time accepting what she was seeing through mine. I tried to protect her from the horrible images of her own suffering and from my hatred and anger that I knew must be coursing through her right now, but it was of no use, the current of the dream was too strong. I was of no use to her, all I could do was watch and feel myself hurting her again and again.

Every time she lost consciousness in the dream, I was gripped with horror at the absence of her thoughts and then she would return to me, weaker, and yet still determined to protect the two men she loved. I didn't deserve her love, but I finally understood her need to protect Hunter, her fear for him, her belief that this was the only answer and although I wished she'd had more faith in me, I respected, if not embraced her choice to keep her identity a secret.

There was nothing I could do to protect her, to tell her how much I regretted my actions, to share with her my overwhelming love.

It was hopeless; I was stripped bare before her, my depravity and malevolence shone through the human mask I wore. She now knew exactly what I was and she would hate me for it. I tried to hold her tighter with my unresponsive arms, in the hopes that I could keep her from leaving me before I returned to my body.

I was sure that I heard her cry out in agony as she felt my shock and horror at learning her identity and I could feel her riding my waves of despair, my supplications for her recovery and my attempts to beg whoever was inside the safe room to tell me how to help her.

I could hear her cooing comforting words to me as I raged in my grief and self-loathing. Back in her body, she was trying to soothe me…me…as though I deserved any sympathy.

It was a blessed relief when she woke again and was healed. I felt the wonder of her magic and her connection with the earth, water and sky. I fully understood what she meant when she said she needed the earth, she truly was part of it now, it strengthened, energized and healed her the way blood energizes the magic that keeps me alive.

But the feeling of growing power that ran through her was unknown to me, foreign and alarming. I couldn't figure out what it really was and I worried that she would not be able to truly harness such incredible power, knowing that she had never been terribly good at controlling her baser instincts.

Suddenly we were staring at one another and it was like looking into a hall of mirrors. I could see and feel both of us from that night and in a more muted fashion, from this night as well.

I didn't want to see the disgust and disappointment in her eyes after seeing the depth of depravity of my true nature, so I focused on the Sookie from the past, the one who's love and guilt was overwhelming me. She really thought that she was to blame for this entire series of events; she believed it and even though I knew the truth, I allowed myself to be pulled in by her benevolence and love.

She wanted to heal my pain and so she held out her hand to me, touched me, allowed me to touch her.

Then we were back in the cottage, as I tended to this woman I loved and would surely lose again. Warm soup was wetting her dry mouth and warming her stomach, pulling her into sleep. She reached out to me, beckoning me to her side for comfort. I couldn't have denied her anything she asked of me.

When she woke, she needed me to touch her with love to reaffirm my feeling for her and to ensure that she truly was alive. She needed to feel something other than pain and so did I. We moaned and sighed together as we shared the wonder of our connection, the love we felt together was truly miraculous.

In the midst of our lovemaking she was disturbed by two Britlingens who coerced and threatened her with a horrific future if she refused to go with them. She relented and was returned to her body. She tried to hold onto me, desperate not to have to leave me again, but aware that if she wanted to have me for the long term that she would need to be stronger and at last, I understood why she left me. Feeling her determination to return to me, safer and stronger, comforted me but I was unable to stop her from experiencing my panic and distress when she disappeared from my arms.

While I destroyed my side of the cottage in anger, my most familiar emotion, she grieved more deeply for my 'pain,' than she had for herself while my hands were hurting her.

0-0-0-0-0

As suddenly as I had been stolen away, I was returned to my body. I awoke with a series of unnecessary gasps to find Sookie asleep, yet sobbing in my arms, her hands reaching out blindly, trying to hold me to her, begging me to stay with her. Tears were streaming down her face and the red streaks on the pillow attested to the fact that I had grieved with her.

I couldn't respond to her, I was actually panting, completely shattered and devastated by the horror of what I had witnessed through her eyes.

Those eyes snapped open a second after mine and I found the horrifically familiar terror staring back at me. "Eric? Oh God, Eric!" she cried and held me closer, her whole body shaking.

I didn't understand, why wasn't she running away from me? What was wrong with her that allowed her to reach out for me after what I had done to her?

"I'm sorry Eric. I'm so sorry I hurt you like that, I didn't realize..." she groaned as she pushed her hand between us and placed it over my silent heart. "I felt everything, and oh my God, I'm so sorry." She put her head down on my chest and sobbed deeply.

The sound broke my heart all over again and her words of apology instead of accusation drove me insane. A multitude of emotions poured through me, none making sense with the scene playing before me now, and I was unsure where to direct them.

She moaned, pulled free from my embrace and moved down my body until her face was at my chest level. Her sweet, gentle fingers snaked under my shirt and tried to pull it up but I stopped its passage at my arms.

Her fingers and lips found the skin directly above my heart and she kissed me there again and again, mumbling regrets and promises that I could only partially comprehend. It was more than I could stand. I saw not her now, touching me so lovingly, but the look of vicious glee in my eyes as I hurt her again and again. My face as I tortured her was indelibly burned in my mind and I couldn't see through it. I had to get away, to figure out what had just happened.

I carefully moved her off my body, rolling toward her so she was lying on the bed and I ignored the gorgeous sight she made, beckoning me to her.

Instead of rolling on top of her like she so clearly wanted, I turned over, stood up and made my way quickly to the closet, tripping over my own foot in the process. I shook my head to clear it, but it still felt disconnected from my body.

"Wh-what? Eric?" she sputtered from behind me. I heard her moving on the bed, maybe kneeling or crawling to follow me.

"Eric! What are you doing?" she asked, her voice stronger now, but I didn't respond. I couldn't.

I stepped into the closet, grateful that I was out her line of sight so I could start to try and pull myself together and began to change out of my clothes that must be filthy after what I had just done.

I picked out another pair of briefs and a clean pair of jeans, but when I went to put them on, I felt so weak that I had to keep a hand on the shelf to help me maintain my balance when on one foot. It wasn't my body that was weak, but my mind. Whatever magic it was that pulled me from my body must still be lingering, or maybe something went wrong and I was still partially entrenched in the past.

I was in the process of picking out a clean t-shirt when I heard a cat-like growl behind me, "What do you think you're doing?" she asked me from outside the closet and I could hear the anger simmering in her voice through the remains of her tears. Of course she was angry with me, it would be crazy for her not to be angry.

What was I doing? I had to look at the black shirt in my fist to remember. I figured my actions would be self-explanatory and since I didn't think I had the strength to say anything to her, I shook out the shirt and was about to put my arms in when it disappeared from my hand.

I blinked and turned around; she was standing inches away from me. What the hell? I hadn't even heard her come up behind me, but there was the proof, she was here and the shirt was in her hand. How could she have been so silent in this small space? I always heard her move, I heard her get ready to move.

"I asked you what you were doing," she said. Her words weren't a request this time, but a demand.

"I was getting dressed," I answered quietly, holding in the cacophony of emotions slamming around within me.

"How could you walk away from me like that after what we just experienced together?" she asked incredulously, gesturing towards the bed.

What we just experienced together? Visions flashed before my eyes and I reached out to the shelf once again to help me with my balance.

"Eric? Are you okay?" she asked, dropping the shirt and moving closer to me. I backed away shaking my head, she didn't follow.

"You shouldn't touch me," I said. She shouldn't, she was still healing, and I could hurt her.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she demanded, her hands on her hips.

"Didn't I just hurt you enough Sookie?" I said looking at her clearly for the first time, her skin was flawless, "Where are your bruises?" I asked and then continued when she looked confused, "And why did you come back? You were right to run from me. You should have stayed away."

"Eric, you're not making sense. I'm not hurt. That was just a dream. I don't know if it was yours, mine or ours together, but you're still stuck in the dream…it's over. Snap out of it!" she said, her voice getting more agitated as she spoke.

"A dream? I've never dreamt and even if I did…that couldn't have been a dream, it was real. I could feel, see, hear everything. I was there watching, but unable to help…weren't you?" I asked, even more confused now.

"No, Eric. We were both here the whole time, I could feel you in my arms and hear you. That was just a dream, more like a lucid dream or maybe even a shared memory, but still just a dream."

"A dream?"

"Eric, I know you don't usually remember your dreams so there's no way that you could have known that it wasn't real, but it wasn't. I had the same dream as you did and I promise you that it wasn't real. Dreams and nightmares are disturbing mostly because of how real they seem. Don't you remember the nightmares I used to have after the fairy war? They're horrible, but when they're over, you wake up and move on. So wake up Eric! I know it's hard to do sometimes, but shake it off!"

I tried to dig myself out of this emotional quagmire, but I couldn't stop the vivid pictures of her suffering from flashing through my mind. I placed my hands on my head and held tight to my hair, "I can't, I don't know how," I mumbled, talking more to myself than her. "All I know is that you're right, I can't protect you." I dropped my hands to my sides, "I'm king now and Appius is finally dead so there are only a few vampires who would dare to challenge me, but there are always dangers, always risks. Someone attempts to attack me or the headquarters on a weekly basis, people shoot silver bullets at my cars as I drive by, there are bombing attempts, possible takeovers, Fellowship of the Sun, the fairies, Felipe...always something. I won't be able to be with you all the time. You'll be hurt, killed or taken from me and I won't be able to help you."

"Wake up!" She yelled at me, getting right in my face.

"I'm awake," I said, looking down at my animated body.

"I don't need you to shelter me Eric; I just want you, not your protection. You saw what I can do now, I'm capable of defending and taking care of myself."

I just stared at her sadly, treasuring the flush on her cheeks, even marred as it was now by tear tracks, the sweep of her brow, the sound of her agitated heartbeat; she was so very precious. "How can I trust you to take care of yourself when you so easily throw your life away? I know how to protect someone, but you don't allow that. What can I do?" I asked helplessly.

"Why aren't you listening to me?" she yelled at me, and I could see fresh tears welling up in her eyes. "Your body may be awake but your mind is still asleep. This was all over a year ago, look at me Eric, I'm fine, but you're still wrapped up in the guilt you felt a year ago."

"The only answer is for you to go back into hiding from everyone including myself and stay safe. We have to get you out of here and back to Maui and then you need to disappear again. No one but Pam and I know you're alive so it'll work."

She stared at me dumbfounded, "It's not just the dream, is it? You're finally telling me the truth. You truly don't believe me. You don't believe that I can protect myself. You'll always see me as a fragile little girl and nothing I can say will change that perception you have of me."

"You are fragile Sookie," I said looking at the slim arm I had broken, the long neck I had all but crushed. "Look at what just happened, at what I just did to you and with so little effort," I said sadly.

"You're more willing to give up on us than to bend the perception you have of me," she said, her eyes widening and her voice becoming angry. "Well I won't Eric! I refuse to give up because the world is dangerous and because you're scared, and I won't let you give up either! I felt how much you love me in that dream and I'm not letting you give that up. I'm here and we're going to get through this together no matter what it takes."

Her eyes wandered away from me and she bit her lip as she appeared to have a desperate internal debate about something. After a moment, she took a deep breath and clenched her eyes closed as though she had reached a difficult conclusion. When she looked back up at me, her face and voice were both thick with quiet compassion, "You would relax if you truly believed I could defend myself against someone as strong and fast as you?"

"Yes," I said skeptically, knowing very well that she was speaking of impossibilities.

"Then I'm so very sorry Eric."

Fuck! I hated hearing those words from her, it just made me realize how foolishly generous she was with herself. "Stop apologizing!" I growled. "What could you possibly have to apologize for?" I grabbed for her, but she dodged me, moving faster than I'd ever seen her move before.

"This," she said as she trailed a fingertip across my bare chest and before I could step away, my world exploded.

White-hot pain ripped through my chest and traveled from my jaw down to my knee on my left side while I flew backwards further into the closet, unable to control my trajectory. I hit the ground with a crash and she was on me before I could move, her knee firmly planted on my burning chest and the jagged edges of a plastic hanger pressed firmly to my jugular.

She was glowing lightly in the dimly lit closet and her eyes sparkled menacingly. I could hear a low growl coming from her chest. Every instinct was telling me to either flee this creature or destroy it immediately, but I couldn't move yet.

This was the scrios Niall had warned me about.

She tossed the hanger away, but kept her weight on my chest while she looked deeply into my eyes. When she finally found what she was looking for she nodded and then sat back a little, taking her knee off my chest.

"Welcome back," she said, not sounding welcoming at all.

I raised my eyebrows at her; I was definitely awake now. The haze that had clouded my mind since I woke was gone and I was uncomfortably aware of how strange I had been acting. I touched my chest with my right hand, it was scaly and patches of my skin cracked when I moved and I could smell my blood seeping from the fissures in my skin. "You did that?" I said, and even I could hear the skepticism in my voice.

"Gee Eric," she sneered, "I can imagine how hard it might be to believe that I could possibly take care of myself especially after you watched me blast a television to pieces and heard me tell you a dozen times that I'm capable. So I understand how humiliating it must be to be knocked flat on your ass by a tiny, weak, yummy little girl like me. I sure would be embarrassed.

"I mean it would be like me getting my ass kicked by the worlds most delicious jelly filled donut, since that's about how much capability you seem to ascribe to me. How could something that looks and smells so yummy be so very bad for you? It's got many of the same ingredients as a plain old slice of white bread…shouldn't it be just as harmless?"

I'd wanted her to have the freedom to get upset and she sure was, she was an incredible sight.

"Come on Eric," she taunted, "try and take a bite, but you'd better be quick because I might be built with some of the same ingredients as a regular old slice of white bread, but that's not what I am, I'm a donut and this donut bites back!"

I growled a little, partly at her threat and partly at the thought of her biting back, and moved to sit up but she put a hand on my chest, so I waited. "I want you to be very clear that what I did to your chest there, that was me being gentle," she said with a snarl.

She glared down at me for another moment before moving slightly away from me and settling into a less threatening kneeling position. She was acting tough but I could see the concern in her eyes as they flickered from my face to my chest every few seconds. I could tell from the decreasing pain and the resolving worry in her eyes that I had almost completely healed.

"Do you need blood?" she asked, holding her wrist out to me.

"No, the burn was superficial," I answered, still absolutely amazed by her.

"Okay, now that I have your full attention, listen carefully to what I have to say to you," she hissed down at me. "Do you recall me saying when we started all this that what's done is done?"

I nodded and sat up, propping my back against a shelving unit that held her clothing, thankful to be healed.

"Then this is how I see it.

"Whatever happened to us back there, that was a gift to us. We would never have been able to understand each other's points of view as clearly if we had just talked about all that. I hated seeing it all again, but I could stand it because I knew that you were with me, right there in that bed.

"I'm sorry that the experience was so disorienting to you. I can't imagine how strange something like that must have been for you since you don't have any memories of dreaming. But I think that what it did was bring out some lingering emotions that my absence hasn't allowed you to deal with yet.

"Now…yes. You hurt me in Hana, devastated me and damn near broke me." I cringed at her admission of the truth that I already knew, "Did you know it was me? No," she answered before I could. "Would I seek vengeance on someone who hurt you or Hunter? You bet your ass I would, so I don't blame you for what you did with the information you had.

"Don't kid yourself Eric, you were never in control of that situation. I held all the cards." I shook my head and opened my mouth to refute her claim, but she continued, "You worked on me for two nights and all you broke was my body. I broke your will with one thought. Who was the victim Eric? Not me.

"Yes, I was more than willing to give my life away if there was the slightest chance that my actions would allow Hunter to have the future he deserves, and I would do it again tomorrow. Don't get in the way of a mother protecting her son Eric, you won't like the consequences. Now I don't have to protect him the way I did before he gained his powers, so hopefully this will be a moot point in the future.

"Yes, I also decided that I couldn't live with myself if I killed you and Pam, so in effect I gave my life away for you too. I know it upsets you," I growled at her understatement, "and I know you will try to protect me just like I'll try to protect you. That's what people who love one another do, Eric.

"I know you would give your life for Pam and she would do the same for you if you didn't stop her with that maker bullshit, so this concept shouldn't be too foreign for you to grasp if you could stop seeing me as a fragile human.

"Next point. Yes, my life has been safe up until a year ago, but that's going to change from here on out whether I have you with me or not. I'm not going back into hiding and I know what I'm up against from a physical standpoint better than you could imagine."

I gave her a desperate look, "I'm not stupid Eric, I know that protecting myself means a lot more than just reacting to physical danger, and that's where I'll need your help. I don't know the lay of the land or the politics or have the connections you do yet. So I'll need to rely on you to guide me through all that and I promise that I'll listen to your advice so long as you trust and respect me the way you would someone else with my abilities.

"You fucked up by sending sub-par protection to take care of me years ago, but you were right, I would have pushed you away if you had tried anything more forceful. So you couldn't win in that situation.

"What you should have done was explain everything clearly to me, laying out all the scary and convoluted details so that I could have made better choices. I'm not saying that I would have, but I could have. As it was, I made stupid decisions that put all of us at risk. I won't be doing that anymore and I won't tolerate being kept out of the loop.

"What I did to you," she gestured at my chest and I saw a flash of regret in her eyes as she looked at my previously burned skin that was now just a raised pink area, "took no effort on my part except for the restraint required to make sure that I didn't cause you any permanent damage. I had hoped that you would simply trust my words and not require a demonstration, but it seems that you've had your head too far up your ass to hear me correctly," she gave me a sad smile that didn't reach her eyes and then was serious again, "So let me say it again, I can and will take care of myself. Remember what the Ancient Pythoness said, 'in trying to protect me, you made me more vulnerable' instead. Let me do what I need to do and I'll be fine."

She reached out to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear and I froze as her fingers brushed across my skin, not quite sure what would happen. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and when she opened them, her lashes were damp, "I love you Eric, even after everything I saw and experienced in that dream or memory or whatever it was exactly that just happened to us. I love you, and I hope that even though you've now seen beyond my mask, that you'll still be able to love me too," she whispered the last two words and then swallowed.

I hadn't moved the entire time she'd been talking, but I'd heard every word, read every gesture.

She slowly stood up, gathered some clothing from the shelves and said, "I'll give you a few minutes to think about all that," and then she walked out of the closet. I heard the bathroom door close and the shower turn on. I waited, unmoving for a few minutes until I heard her step into the shower and close the door behind her.

Once I was secure in the fact that I would be alone for a few minutes, I allowed my mouth to fall open, a delayed reaction to all the cumulative shocks I'd had.

What the fuck just happened?

S~

I closed the bathroom door behind me and barely managed to turn on the shower and grab a towel to cover my face before I succumbed to my tears. I didn't want Eric to hear me crying, so I was as silent as I could be given how distressed and exhausted I was.

How had this gone so terribly wrong? All we had wanted was to rest together and instead we'd been thrown into a horrible joint nightmare that twisted Eric's mind and had pushed me to a point where I might have done something unforgivable. I'd nearly lost it when he'd froze as my fingers brushed his ear, it was so clear that he didn't trust me anymore, and why would he? All the progress we'd made was lost and I didn't know if he would be willing to try again, the thought of losing him terrified me.

It was all up to him now, I'd laid everything out on the line for him. He knew were I stood and how I felt, so it was going to be up to him to take the next step, if he wanted to. This is what I'd challenged him with last night, to figure out who I am now and let go of the woman I used to be. But I hadn't expected it to be so hard for him and so very scary for me. What would I do if he couldn't accept me as I am?

I hated proving my capabilities by showing him directly, but I knew he would never believe me unless he felt the power himself. I also had thought that it would probably shock him out of his post-dream hangover, effectively killing two birds with one stone, but the fact that I'd been right on at least one of my suppositions didn't lift the guilt I carried about hurting him.

The effect of my attack was certainly startling, but I'd done it before to a vampire after extensive training and so I was positive that I knew how to do it safely. Eric had actually healed about twice as fast as the idiot who attacked me while I was on a real-life training mission with Clovache in Syracuse, New York.

In the midst of all my worry and regret, one thing managed to give me hope that Eric would accept me as I am now. I could swear that I had seen a small hint of approval in his eyes right after I had carefully touched him with my power. It would have to do.

With that tiny piece of hope, I pulled myself together and climbed into the shower. I took my time, but was a coward, I checked many times to see if Eric was still here. A large part of me was worried that he would leave, unwilling to face me again, but thankfully he stayed. Much of the time he was in the closet, but then he moved to the bedroom and sat down on the love seat. I was filled with both relief and trepidation as I dried off and put on new clothes, reverting once again to long sleeves and pants to bolster my courage.

I took a deep breath and opened the door, noting that my palms were sweaty and my heart was stuck in my throat.

Eric was on the love seat, but the minute I came out, he got up, walked toward me and stood staring at me. He looked awful. His face was deeply pained and my stomach dropped out, had I mistaken his level of healing before I went into the bathroom? I should have made sure that he had taken some blood.

"Eric, are you still hurting?" I asked, my voice urgent with worry, stepping close enough to touch him, but I didn't have the courage to try.

He shook his head and he touched me, cupping my cheek with his hand so lightly that I could hardly feel his cool skin against mine. His eyes were still searing with pain, "Please forgive me Sookie," he said desperately.

My eyes widened in shock and I tried to respond, but he cut me off, "Don't tell me there's nothing to forgive. I need your forgiveness," he said, with his emphasis on the word 'need'. "You've healed from this better than I have because I can't forgive myself until I hear those words from you, I can't move on without them."

I leaned my head into his palm, hating that he felt this way. I felt that saying that I forgave him somehow placed culpability on him, and I wanted him to be free from my blame. "Please Sookie," he said, hardly moving his lips.

"I forgive you Eric," I said and I forced myself not to deflect the perceived blame of my words back onto myself, knowing how very much he needed this. "I forgive you and I love you even more than I did before all this happened. Of course I forgive you."

He closed his eyes and sunk down onto his knees, pulling me into him and down onto his lap and he held me there, cradling me carefully, running his hands up and down my back and sides, his lips kissing my hair and temples and then he pulled away.

"Thank you for fighting for us when I could not," he whispered against my skin.

"I can't let you go," I breathed, relief poured over me and made me weak.

"You understood my emotions, the ones you felt in my...dreams? You know how I feel about you?" he asked tipping my head back to see clearly in my eyes.

Tears welled up and blurred my vision, so I blinked them back and his face was once again clear to me, "Yes, I understand," I said, finally allowing myself to touch his cheek and tension rolled out of my chest when he leaned toward my caress and kissed my palm. I had nearly been bowled over with the intensity of his love and need and had been so afraid that I would never feel that love again.

"I know how much you love me, I could feel it too. You really, really love me," he said, a slight smile brightening his face.

"Yes, you idiot, I do."

His smile grew and took on a mischievous quality, "And nothing I could do will change that?"

Uh-oh...I thought as my heart began to pound, I liked where this was going, "Well nothing within reason," I answered teasingly, a smile breaking through on my own face.

"Good," he growled as he grabbed me and attacked my lips in a kiss that knocked me onto my back and curled my toes. Before I knew it, he was on top of me and my hands were running all over his bare chest and back, feeling his muscles tensing as he moved.

"Oh, thank goodness," I moaned around his lips and wrapped my legs over his, my God I loved having him on top of me. "Is this another unauthorized excursion?" I teased, knowing full well that it wasn't.

"No, this is fully authorized so long as you agree," he mumbled against me.

"Oh, yes! You have been approved for duty, Viking," I said and then I pulled at his lower lip with my teeth.

When he growled and began to ravish my neck, I put joking aside for a moment, "Does this mean that you forgive me for...you know," I said as I stilled my hand on his completely healed chest at the epicenter of the area I had burned.

"That depends," he said, licking along my jawline, making me groan, "can you do it anytime you want?"

I nodded, it was all I could do, I was too busy swallowing back my excitement at the moment.

His eyes flashed with desire and seemed to darken as he stared at me. Seeing this look from him again made my heart pound and my body hum. "Even when you're scared or injured?"

"Definitely when I'm scared, maybe when I'm injured, I don't know about that one."

He lost his intensity for a moment while his mind dug around, worriedly working through the implications of my words.

I wanted him with me and on track, so I reminded him exactly what he needed to be focusing on at this moment by giving him a bite on the shoulder that was firm enough to get his full attention but not enough to break his skin.

He growled deeply and put his concerns aside. I was delighted to see his fangs drop down and I grabbed the back of his head so I could run my tongue down the length of each fang, remembering just how wondrous that felt.

He hissed and took my hands from behind his neck, holding them firmly above my head.

"Will you lose control and turn me into cinders when I'm inside you, making you scream my name?" he said, his eyes glinting with promises I needed him to keep.

He pressed himself against me and I could feel myself melting in all the right places...oh goody, goody, goody.

"Nope," I said, allowing the 'p' to pop at the end and then running my tongue along my upper lip, "I have incredible control."

He growled loudly as he swept me up and tossed me onto the bed and ogled me hungrily, fangs fully extended, eyes wide. "Then get ready because I'm hungry and I don't want white bread...I want a donut!"

I squealed in delight as he dove on top of me with humor and excitement sparkling in his eyes.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

A/N:

Goody, goody! Don't worry, I won't fade to black on these lemons, you all have worked too hard to get here! I am getting away for a romantic weekend with my hubby for his 40th birthday and I'm NOT taking the computer so the next chapter may be a few days later than usual.


	33. Chapter 33

A/N: Holy cow, she's back you might be saying. Yes, I am, finally. Sorry all for the delay. It began with two long weekends away and then a schedule change for my son's days which threw me totally off my writing pattern, however the biggest problem was that I had planned for this to be my last chapter and hadn't really worked out how things would progress in the future and the terror of that had me totally messed up. Well, I've figured out at least half of it as the many charts and timelines scattered around the house can attest to, so I'm on my way again.

My incredible beta, Charhamblin ladies (and gentlemen?). She gave me a pat on the back when I was really doubting myself, set me straight with my many errors caused by my scattered attention (any that are left are all my fault), and even looked this over a second time. So thank you my dear for helping me over this hump. This chapter (and the ones following it) may never have been posted with out you!

Next chapter is half way done already!

Chapter 33 Together

I squealed in delight as he dove on top of me with humor and excitement sparkling in his eyes. He landed on me and the impact was less than his large frame should have caused and I was able to discern for the first time that he slowed himself in the air before coming into contact with me. Usually his motions were too fast for me to see when he moved like this, but I was able to catch them this time. He hadn't really jumped on me, but flown.

I didn't care about the mechanics; all I cared about was that he was here in my arms, with his long hard body pressed against mine.

His muscles were taught and he made constant happy growling noises from deep in his chest.

I ran my hands down his smooth bare back and was delighted to find when my hands reached his hips, that his pants were gone. I guess I hadn't caught all of his movements after all. He must have removed his pants as he was flying toward me, but I sure hadn't seen him do it. I laughed out loud with absolute glee when my fingers found his glorious bottom. I sought out a handful of his sexy buns and pulled his hips closer to mine, spreading my legs and raising my hips to press myself even more firmly against him. I simply couldn't get enough of him.

Eric chuckled through his growls in a way that sounded deliciously mischievous. He complied with my request for more friction to my groin as he tilted my head to the side and back so he could get the best angle to kiss me the way only he could.

His cool tongue explored my mouth, tasting and feeling every contour, frequently stopping to allow his tongue to dance with mine. I gasped with pleasure when he nibbled on my lips and my tongue with his teeth and I eagerly returned the favor, loving the feel of him in my mouth, on my tongue. His taste and scent was like a drug to me and I craved more, needed more.

Eric's lips left mine to travel down my jaw to my neck. I whimpered at the loss of his mouth from mine and at the sensation of his tongue on my neck, tracing a line from the bottom of my ear to my clavicle. He focused his attentions over my pulse point and I could actually feel my pulse pounding against his cool tongue.

He removed his tongue and then I gasped and cried out as he bit at my skin a few times with his blunt teeth, encouraging blood to rush to the area without breaking the skin. He then ran his nose over me and groaned, his whole body shaking as he locked down on his muscles to keep from biting me.

I took the opportunity while he was distracted to flip us over and straddle him. My damp hair fell down over him and joined his on the bed; I brushed a few hairs from his tense face and kissed him gently. His pupils were dilated and his fingers were tightly clenched on my shoulders, holding me in place. I understood his dilemma, so I lowered myself and kissed his ear, "Take what you want when you're ready Eric, I won't allow you to drink too much, don't worry."

I felt him relax fractionally under me and I continued kissing his ear and very slowly made my way down to his nipple. Right before I took his nipple into my mouth, his hands finally moved. They loosened slightly on my shoulders and gently pulled me up so I was looking right at him. His face was once again tortured with emotion and I felt my eyes soften as the sheer depth of his feelings blew me away again.

"I love you Sookie," he said running his fingers gently over my face.

I smiled and kept my eyes on his as I moved back down his body until I was poised over his chest. I took a long pause, still staring at Eric and then I slowly licked his nipple. His hands were now on my head and his grip was almost painful and I knew that he was barely holding on to his sanity so I didn't dare bite just yet. Instead, I licked and suckled, using the flat of my tongue to transfer as much of the heat from my mouth to his chest as I could possibly manage, knowing how much he loved my warmth.

When I was satisfied that I had given enough attention to this one body part, I sat up and placed my left palm over his wet nipple to hold the heat in and caught his hand in mine as he allowed it to slip from my head to accommodate my movements. I wound my fingers through his and brought his fingers to my lips, kissing, licking and sucking each one, reveling in and treasuring every inch of his skin.

He allowed me to do all of this, accepted this loving from me with hardly a movement, only responding with moans and with the love pouring over me from his expressions. I had dreamt about this for so long, dreamt about having him next to me, under me, over me, feeling his skin, his muscles and his love; but never did I expect to be able to weave such a spell as to have him at my mercy in this way.

We had been together so many times and never had I seen him hand the power over to me in such an unguarded manner. I was touched, honored and deeply moved at the trust he was showing me. I was also so incredibly happy to have the chance to explore his body in this quiet way.

I kissed my way down his hand and lingered a while at his broad palm before making my way to his wrist and up his arm to his elbow, my fingers trailing down the lines of muscles in his forearms, each one clearly defined. I traced the contours of his biceps and then went down again to visit the full length of his triceps, finally reaching his strong shoulder. I stayed here for a while, reveling in the contrast of hard bone and the long lean muscle that connected here, creating the anchor for his strong and capable arms.

I made my way up to his chest to lavish my attention on his other nipple and Eric's hands found their way back to my head, threading his fingers into my now mostly dry hair. He was mumbling in a mixture of Swedish and what I assumed was Old Norse so I could understand at least half of what he was saying. Words such as "never…shouldn't be possible…mine…without you," crossed his lips and I was torn between feeling powerful and incredibly touched. The mixture of emotions and this gift he was giving me made me realize just how carefully I had to handle him, now and later. He was very fragile and unprotected when it came to me and I could never betray this or act in a way that would cause his love for me to become a weakness.

I kissed my way down his sternum to his stomach and belly button, running my fingers along his ribcage and across his abdominal muscles, training my tongue along the crest of his hipbone, around his side to the top edge of his firm butt. Meanwhile, I allowed my fingers to take the same journey on the other side and then my mouth and hand traveled back, following his natural contours until they met at the base of his gracious plenty, skirting it completely and continued down one long leg to his toes.

Eric's mumblings became chants as I took his big toe into my mouth and cupped it with my tongue at the same time that I trailed my fingers along his calf and through his soft leg hair. After giving the same attention to his other foot, I made my way back up his calf and along his inner thigh, nudging his legs farther apart and licking at the junction where his legs met.

I heard him hiss above me and saw that he had closed his eyes for a long moment, something he rarely did during sex. My lips and tongue journeyed over his sensitive balls and then I paused for a second, making absolutely sure that he was looking deep into my eyes as I slowly placed the flat of my tongue on him and licked his length and then, thanking the heavens, finally allowed him to slip between my lips and into my mouth. I ran my tongue around him, wetting him, exploring him fully, reminding myself of his contours and adjusting to his size. When I was ready and he was growling and fighting not to buck his hips by digging his fingers into the mattress so hard that he ripped the sheets, I allowed him to slide slowly down my tongue, taking him in as far as I was able and was rewarded with a feral roar and the sound of material shredding on both sides of me.

I gave him the attention of my mouth and hands for a few minutes and when I sensed he was nearing his completion, I raised my tongue in the back as I guided him in and out and was rewarded when his hips pumped and he roared louder and more desperately than I had heard before. He then collapsed back onto the bed with a gratifying thump. I giggled as I released him and gave him a few more licks but his hands shot to my head, holding me still and then gently urged me back up his body to lie on top of him. It was at this point that I realized I was still fully dressed and my smile grew even wider at how very much control he had given me, or perhaps, that I had taken.

Eric was staring at me like he'd never seen me before and I couldn't help but laugh at the look of absolutely satisfied shock on his face. My cocksure attitude faded quickly when his eyes came back into focus and he plundered my mouth, his growls returning and growing in volume. Suddenly I was on my back and he was on top of me; fangs fully descended, lips slightly retracted and a look in his eyes that would make any sane woman terrified.

Luckily, I was far from sane and I stretched my arms up to wrap them around his neck but he caught my wrists in his hands and shook his head as he firmly pressed my arms to the mattress above my head. I gave a cry of complaint that turned into a moan when he kissed me deeply again, making my head spin. He released my wrists and without my conscious intent, my hands were back in his hair the next second. The mind-blowing kiss ended as he once again pulled my hands away from him and put them above my head.

"Stay," he growled, and this time, he kept one hand around my wrists for a few minutes while he kissed every inch of my face, sometimes allowing his teeth to drag over my skin and others touching me with only his breath. The combination of the deep and almost but not quite painful touch with the light tickling of his breath had me on fire and ready to jump out of my skin to get more of him.

This time he deliberately avoided the sides of my neck and instead focused on the underside of my chin and my throat. He spent a long time caressing and kissing my neck and I could tell from his noises that he was still shaking off the remnants of our dream. It would take time, but he would move beyond it at some point.

He released my wrists and although I found a more comfortable position for them, I kept my hands and arms to themselves and this time, allowed him to lead the dance of our passion.

His fingers grasped the front of my shirt and without providing any traction on my neck, he ripped the shirt straight down the middle, baring my bra covered chest. He growled again and ripped the bra just as easily. His hands slid under me and I felt the same actions in the back as he tore the shirt and bra down the back and then slid them off my arms and tossed the pieces onto the floor.

I moaned loudly when he allowed his body to press against mine, our skin meeting, warm with cool, masculine with feminine.

I watched him lick his lips and sighed in relief when I finally felt his cool hands and mouth on my chest. Instead of going first for my nipple, his nose slid down the valley between my breasts and then his tongue made the journey back up, licking the length of my sternum. It was sublime torture to accept such pleasure without being able to participate. I tried to exert my will by wrapping my legs around him, but he unwound me from him and growled at me to behave.

He even denied me the relief of being able to kiss his smooth skin. I cried out in frustration and was rewarded with a wicked smile as he turned his head to the side and nuzzled the side of my breast, while his hands caressed my sides and the outside edges of each breast and the sensitive underside of my arms, making me moan and try to grind my hips against his. He shook his head, lifting his hips from mine and I growled at him, causing him to laugh as he licked, kissed and nipped at me on his way to my nipple.

When his mouth finally closed around me, I cried out and arched so violently that I impaled my breast on his fangs and felt myself begin to bleed. Instead of suckling on the blood, he withdrew from me and then froze, his jaw tight; eyes dilated and fixated on the sight of my blood running slowly down my breast.

He stayed there for so long that I felt the wound heal and the blood began to dry. I didn't want him to have to resist so I copied what he had asked me to do earlier to make this easier for him. Using my right index and middle fingers, I swept up a little of the blood and held it up to his mouth, smoothing a little on his lower lip.

He closed his eyes and moaned painfully, "Sookie," and then he opened his lips, licked at my fingers and slowly took them into his mouth. His tongue swirled over my fingertips until all the blood was gone and he released my hand.

Instead of going straight to my breast to clean up the rest of my blood, he leaned forward so that his chest was suspended above mine. He gently placed both of his hands on the sides of my face and lowered his lips to mine in a whisper soft kiss. His touch was so very gentle and conveyed so much of what he was feeling that moisture sprung up behind my eyelids and I felt tears slide down each side of my face. With a quiet moan, he took his lips from mine and slid the side of his face against each of my wet cheeks, coating himself in my tears before licking my cheeks clean and giving me one more long kiss.

While I was recovering from the emotion of the moment, I missed that his fingers had found their way down to the waist of my jeans. I vaguely noticed when he unfastened my pants and moved down my body kissing and licking while he slid my pants and underwear off my hips and legs. He put my legs over his shoulders and then placed his hands under my bottom, lifting my hips into the air and kissed my inner thighs, allowing his hair to tickle my legs and my center, but he kept his mouth away, teasing me ruthlessly.

When I thought I was about to explode, his mouth and fingers were suddenly exactly where I wanted them to be, pleasuring me, making me scream and beg. I watched as his eyes once again lost their focus and he took on an animalistic posture, holding me closer and tensing his body as though he were about to be attacked.

I bucked and cried out, reaching my peak when he fluttered his fingers inside me and gave me a long, lick that applied traction at just the right place.

I needed him inside me. Now. But I knew that he wasn't really thinking anymore since he ignored my verbal pleas and the firm tugging I applied to his hair, so I let down my shields just long enough to whisper in his mind, _'Please, Eric,' _and I sent him a picture of us wrapped together in an embrace. His feral eyes locked onto mine I slammed my shields back up, but the glimpse I got of his mind and the sensations roiling though his body while I was in there was enough to throw me over the cliff and into another orgasm.

"Oh my God!" I cried hoarsely, absolutely amazed by the intensity of his arousal and how much need and barely controlled desire he felt at that one moment in time. His restraint and control was simply mind blowing. He smiled at me wickedly, enjoying his complete power over me and kept his fingers inside me for a moment enjoying the way my muscles had locked down on him and I cried out when he removed them, dragging them across my most sensitive nerve endings on the way out. The loss of his fingers was a momentary blow that was eased when he slid up my body, still staying off my bloody right breast. His lips closed over mine at the same time that he pressed himself into me and we swallowed each other's moans of relief as my body accepted his length. We stilled our movements, gazing into one another's eyes and simply rejoiced in our union.

He pressed deeper into me, making me gasp and slowly slid himself all the way out and then back in even deeper, each time making sure to stimulate all the points that drove me insane. His motions became faster and I matched every one, thrusting and tilting my hips to provide him with the greatest pleasure I could manage. He kissed me deeply and rolled so I was sitting on top of him so he could raise and lower my hips exactly as he wanted.

I followed his pattern and he freed one hand to pinch my left breast and his other to just barely touch my clitoris. The combination of sensations caused me to fall forward, and I caught myself with my shaking hands on his chest. He stared at me as he raised his head and captured my nipple in his mouth, teasing and sucking, while still pleasuring me with his hand and helping me maintain the pace he had set by lifting my hips with his hand that had left my breast.

I was putty in his hands, unable to think about anything but the incredible pleasure he was giving me. Suddenly he pulled my stomach close to his so our pelvises never lost contact, rubbing me along his pelvic bone and he gave my breast a firm nip with his blunt teeth and I screamed out as I came violently, gasping each time he thrust himself back into me. It took me a few seconds, but I realized that he was finally cleaning the blood off my breast and I held my weight off him with rubbery arms so he could drive our pace and pattern while he was enjoying my blood.

He thrust himself into me one more time and threw his head back with a glorious roar of release. I collapsed down on top of him and felt one large hand wind into my hair and the other span my lower back as we lay twined together, recovering from our loving.

My body was still shaking when he moved me to his side and I cuddled up against him, resting my head on his chest. I could stay here, just like this, forever.

Cool fingers lightly traced the side of my arm that was draped over his chest, and followed the line of my side down to my hip.

"I will never get enough of you," he whispered.

I pushed up on my elbow and looked down at him. How was it possible? How was it remotely possible that he was here with me? Fulfilling my dreams, opening my heart and healing the damage I had suffered when I left him so long ago.

I felt for the wall that had been both prison for and stalwart defender of my heart and found that although it was still present, it felt thinner, with many of the bricks lying haphazardly around the base of the once sturdy structure. I knew instinctively that the wall would never disappear completely, not after all this time, and if I was honest with myself, I needed to have it at the ready to use when necessary. I could never run through life without thinking anymore, responding and acting without real thought. Those times were long gone.

I knew it wouldn't be easy for either of us, but I knew we would both put the effort forth to make our relationship work. "I love you Eric. Thank you for accepting all of me." I leaned down and gently kissed his lips. He moaned and I heard pain in the noise.

"Is it too hard for you? Too hard to resist my blood?" I asked, kissing the corners of his eyes, "It seems so difficult for you. I could block my scent, maybe that would help."

Suddenly I was on my back and he was on top of me, with his elbows propped up on either side of me, and his hands wrapped under my head. "No," he said firmly. "If you could even suggest that, then you have no idea what your scent does to me. It is second only to the taste of your blood.

"A thousand years Sookie, I've had almost every kind of blood but nothing could ever prepare me for the taste of you when we are together like this," he nudged me with his hips to emphasize his words.

"But you can't even drink from me and it seems so painful for you, maybe…"

He covered my lips with his for a moment to quiet me, "I can drink from you Sookie," his fangs came down a little and he ran a finger down the side of my neck, "I would love nothing more than to drink your blood while we make love, but I am hesitant to do so for a few reasons. First, even though you say that you wouldn't allow me to drink too much and I believe you," he said quickly before I could scold him, "you are putting yourself in a very vulnerable position and I want you to be able to relax and not worry that I'll lose control. I won't make you worry about defending yourself from me while we make love."

Again I tried to deflect his concern, but he shook his head, "This is my choice Sookie, let me make it." He was right and I was touched by the care he was taking with my mind as well as my body.

"The good news is that every time I am exposed to your blood, it becomes a little easier for me to control my desire," he said with a slight twinkle in his eyes.

"Well then we'll just have to make sure you have plenty of exposure," I said, smiling up at him. He tilted my head up and brought his lips to mine in a firm and happy kiss that led us down the pathway of more loving.

This time, Eric used his fangs to gently scratch me, drawing small beads of blood which he licked up quickly with his cool tongue, he was becoming more brazen and I longed to feel his fangs sink into my skin and to hear his immense satisfaction as he drank.

Round three was interrupted by my stomach, which complained bitterly about being ignored. Eric brought me a fish dinner with asparagus on pasta. We both had our meals in bed, Eric playfully touching me while I ate. I pulled the sheet over my lap to keep from spilling in the bed and to limit his exploration until I was done eating, but I had no need to cover myself. I had gotten over my need for modesty long ago.

When I was almost done, I caught Eric staring at me, deep in thought. "What's up Eric?" I said, grabbing the bull by the horns.

He frowned slightly and then allowed a smile cross his lips.

"I find myself curious…" he said.

"About what?" I asked, spearing up one of the last pieces of fish on my paper plate.

He picked up a lock of my hair and tucked it behind my ear, "About the men you have bedded since leaving Louisiana," he answered casually.

I froze with my fork an inch from my mouth and stared at him. He was serious but he wasn't upset…yet. I slowly placed the fork down on the plate and moved it off my lap to the side table next to the bed. I took a few more seconds to wipe my mouth and hands with my napkin before placing that on the table as well.

I took a deep breath and looked back up at him. He was waiting patiently for me to respond to his statement. "Are you sure that you want to discuss this?" I asked, tilting my head slightly to the side. I wasn't ashamed or embarrassed and had long ago let go of the guilt I felt after I had taken my first temporary companion, but things were going so well, I didn't want him getting all worked up with vampire jealousy.

He nodded so I gestured for him to begin asking his questions.

"Are you with anyone now?" he asked.

"Yes," I answered truthfully and watched all expression melt off his face.

Hey, you ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer. But I couldn't torment him for long, "You, Eric. I'm with you," I stated firmly.

His locked expression broke open and was replaced once again with one of confident relaxation. He raised an eyebrow at me, requesting more information.

He was entitled to this information, "I'll answer your question, but first I have a few for you." He encouraged me to continue, "What makes you think that I bedded any others after I left you?"

He ran a smooth finger down my arm, making me shiver, "I remember every touch you ever gave me and every response you had to me. You are more relaxed and mature in your loving and more skilled. You could only have learned that one way."

I nodded, accepting the truth of his words. "The women you've been with since I left, did you have anything with them that was similar to what we just shared?" I asked carefully.

He growled angrily and made a disgusted face, "No. I only used them briefly for the blood and the relief. I cared nothing for them."

"I understand," I said, "and although I didn't dislike any of the men I was with, in a way, my encounters with them were similar to yours. I needed the physical contact and the brief intimacy to remind myself that I was still alive and to allow myself to feel again, but I never allowed any of them to know me or to touch my heart."

"How long did you keep your lovers?" he asked.

I frowned at his choice of words. "One night, very rarely two," I answered.

It was his turn to frown, "That doesn't sound like you Sookie. The Sookie I knew did not engage in sex cavalierly."

I shrugged, "You're right," I said, "but I couldn't allow anyone to get close and I needed the contact, so I improvised out of my normal routines."

He stared at me for a while and I waited for him to continue.  
>"Were you at risk of exposing your identity?" he questioned.<p>

"Only the first time," I responded. "It occurred right after spending two days on Oahu and meeting Pele so I wasn't thinking clearly and I foolishly left some clues behind. Pam nearly put all the pieces together. She almost found me just three years after I left."

Eric's hand dropped from my arm where he had been running his fingers over my skin. He sat quietly for a moment before saying, "You would not have wanted to return to me then so it was best that she didn't find you."

I nodded in agreement; somewhat surprised that he saw it that way. "So it doesn't bother you?" I asked, wanting to get this out of the way right now so that it didn't linger over us in the future.

He stood up and began to pace the room. Uh-oh, here it comes, "Does it 'bother' me that other men were touching you, seeing you, talking with you while I thought you were dead?" he asked in a way that left me without any doubts as to what his answer would be…I asked a stupid question so I knew what I should get. "Of course it bothers me Sookie, even if I understand your explanation, it still bothers me. I want to hunt down each and every one of them so I can rip their dicks and hands off and gouge out their eyes, but I am not angry with you for your choices." He came to a sudden stop at the foot of the bed.

"You have not been with another vampire, have you?" he asked suddenly.

"No." I answered quickly. "Only humans and weres."

It was clear that he was relieved I hadn't been with vampires but he wasn't happy about the weres. It took him a minute more to calm down and then he said, "No, I'm not angry with you, because only one thing matters now. It is the one undeniable truth that will stop any other man from ever touching you again."

He leaned closer to me with fangs now fully descended, eyes blazing and I loved it. I loved that he was still able to be himself, to show his possessiveness and his confidence even though he knew what I could do to him.

"You. Are. Mine." he said, his voice clear and strong. I treasured this side of him much more now than I ever had before because he knew I could deny him and still he was sticking his emotional neck out.

He moved even closer, slinking up the end of the bed toward me like the predator that is at the root of his nature. "You are mine. Your body is mine. Your every breath and each heartbeat belong to me; sustain me as much as they do you. We are not individuals anymore, we haven't been since you became mine almost twenty years ago." He kissed over my heart and then ran his tongue up my neck, causing me to shiver.

"Every piece of you is mine. Your desires are my desires. Your needs are my needs. Your problems are my problems." He looked down at me, his blue eyes warm and loving and I raised my head to welcome a kiss but before he lowered his lips to mine, a twinkle lit his eyes and he said, "Your every choice is my choice to make." I threw back my head and laughed out loud and he joined me with the low rumbling laugh I loved so much.

"Well it was worth a try," he said, smiling. Slowly his smile faded and he placed his large hand on my cheek and held my face firmly, claiming me as his. "You are mine Sookie, every bit of you," his hand slid down my face to my waist and then his fingers wrapped around the edge of the sheet, "Your body is mine. Mine only," he growled. "Anyone else who even thinks about touching it will cease to exist. You. Are. Mine!"

I shuddered and joy poured through my body. In his alpha male vampire style, Eric had just found another way to tell me that he loved me and wanted to share every part of my life with me. He continued staring at me with his hand on the sheet, waiting for me to accept his claim as my one and only lover. He wasn't asking for anything that I wouldn't freely and happily give so I sat up and brushed my hair onto one shoulder. I knew I wasn't playing fair as I stared into his eyes and said, "I'm yours Eric," and I tipped my head to the side, presenting my neck to him. Whether he bit me or not was irrelevant and I knew he would understand that I was offering him more than just my blood.

He growled and grabbed me by the back of my neck, pulling me to him roughly, so we were both kneeling on the bed. He pressed my body to his as he smelled and licked at my jugular. "I love you Sookie," I heard him whisper and then I felt the sting of his fangs just barely piercing my skin and then his cool tongue softly lapped at the blood that leaked from the tiny wounds and I moaned at the sensation and the sound of his pleasure as he enjoyed my blood.

He still wasn't comfortable with drinking larger quantities, the way he used to suck my blood straight from my veins, but this was so far beyond good enough. He was still licking my neck when his hands grasped my hips and raised me just enough to then lower me so that I slid all the way down onto him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist and just held on for dear life while he pumped me up and down on him, never losing contact with my neck.

Through the sounds of our pleasure, I heard him mumbling deep growls and chants of "Mine…mine." He was marking me as his, and my body screamed in joy as he filled me again and again, claiming me. Eric rubbed his face along my cheek and then bent me backwards so he could nibble on my breasts, "Mine," he moaned, "you kept these from me for too long."

We were both suddenly distracted as an envelope appeared in midair and floated down onto the bed, landing with the wax seal marked with a flame glinting in the dimly lit room. We looked at one another and both of us laughed, knowing that this note could only be telling us that Hunter was safe with the Britlingens. Hunter and I had been wondering what would trigger them to come and retrieve him for training and I guess the presence of all the fairies around here was enough to call the Britlingens to him. Joy and relief filled my already happy heart, knowing that I would be able to face this adjustment period without worrying about Hunter for a year and then he would return to us, stronger and more capable. I sighed deeply with relief.

Eric rolled backwards so that I was on top of him, regaining my attention. He licked the moisture from my chest and took my nipple into his mouth. I arched back and groaned, taking him as far into me as I was able, my hands knotted in his hair roughly, pulling him to me desperately. His hand left my bottom, slid between our bodies and he pleasured me relentlessly. I shook as I careened toward another climax and I lost focus as my body sought out and accepted what it needed to reach it's perfect saturation of pleasure before exploding in spasms at the same time as Eric roared and pulled me to him, squeezing me tight against his long, now warm body.

We lay together, wrapped within one another for just a moment before he began to shift. I whimpered with disappointment when he pulled away from me and rather than tucking me against his chest as was his habit, he propped himself on his elbow and looked down at me. His hand caressed my cheek, brushing away a few errant strands of hair before he lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me gently….and then he collapsed on the bed, dead asleep.

My mouth dropped open and I reached out my mind to others in the building and I was shocked to find out that it was 7:25 AM. Eric had stayed awake thirty minutes past sunrise, making love to me. Talk about devotion to duty.

I rolled over and grabbed the letter from the bed and broke open the seal. Inside was one word. _'Later!' _Laughing at the note which was so very Hunter's style, I wrestled the sheet and blanket up to cover Eric's prone body and rushed to the bathroom to take care of business and clean up a little. Then I curled back up next to him, wrapped my arms and legs around him and to my absolute amazement, I fell asleep.

0-0-0

I awoke as Eric began to stir and so I was able to watch him resurface from his daytime rest. His hands and eyelids twitched first and then his nose as he explored his surroundings. A wide smile broke out across his face and he pulled me toward him and he nuzzled his face between my breasts and, I swear he sighed, a deep and contented sigh.

"You smell like me. This is how you should smell, delicious you, surrounded by me. Mmmmmmmine," he breathed. I giggled at him, he was just so cute when he woke, and it had always been my favorite time with him. He sounded like how the chocolate of the M&M must feel about the peanut it surrounds.

He flipped me on top of him, still never having opened his eyes and reminded me of another reason I loved being with him when he woke. He was inside me before I could catch my balance and I screamed out loud with joy. He was in a playful mood and he kept bringing me to the edge of reason and backing off, driving me crazy with want before finally allowing me to reach completion and following right behind me with a roar. He hardly missed a second before he scooped me up in his arms.

"Come, we both need sustenance," he announced and kissed me on the nose before depositing me on the chair by the table and disappearing out the door to the kitchen. That's pretty much how the next few nights passed for us, long bouts of love making broken up by eating/drinking and talking. I had never spent so much time talking as I did those three nights. This was despite the amazing amount of time we spent wrapped in each other's arms. We talked about my time in Hana and Britlin. He was particularly interested in learning about my training and my two training missions, one in Syracuse, NY and the other in North Dakota, both to protect the Kings of the states from external threats.

We explored our ability to use our mental connection and found it a much easier way to share our experiences than talking. I'd always done this with Hunter and more recently with the male Britlingens and Carrie Grace, but we would have to be extremely careful to keep our connection undetectable from others outside of our close circle of what he called his primary team. We would not be hiding the fact that I was a telepath since it was already known to many in the community, but we would be keeping some of my abilities secret for now.

Eric trusted me with more information than he had ever done so before. I learned about his coalition with Oklahoma and he explained his takeover in detail and his transition to being king and had to spend the next twenty minutes calming me down once I heard that Felipe was still alive. For some reason, I was more worried about Felipe than the fairies and that infuriated Eric since Felipe hadn't been seen or heard from since Eric and Freyda took over his kingdoms.

Eric then continued, recounting the efforts he took in the early years to help Louisiana fully rebound from the lingering effects from Katrina. Louisiana's economy had recovered and the vampire population had doubled from its pre-Katrina numbers. Apparently vampires enjoyed living under his rule and were coming from other states and countries to do so. Of course, this had the negative impact of drawing attention to the kingdom and irritating the monarchs of the states that the vampires were emigrating from. It was also upsetting the less tolerant portion of the human population and this is what triggered Eric's foray into some of the more unusual strategies for building tolerance and communication between the supernatural and human communities. I was very interested in learning more about this once we left here.

Our nights were full of sharing with one another in every way, and I was developing a steady sleep-wake cycle thanks to Eric's need for sleep all day, but I always tried to make sure that I was awake when he woke. I loved watching him wake and reaping the benefits of his drowsy but talented lovemaking.

So for the most part, everything went smoothly, but there were a few topics we hadn't discussed, and that we both knew we had to cover on the last full night we would spend down here.

Amazingly enough, I found that I was sad to be leaving our little hideaway and I knew that everything would change when we left even though he was still supposedly on 'vacation' for the next five days. We would be using those days to prepare ourselves before everyone expected him to be back at the headquarters. At that point, his duties would begin again in full and we both wanted me to be as settled as possible when that happened.

On our last night, after we made love, showered and ate; I bit the bullet and put one of the topics on the table. We should have been discussing this all along, but I just didn't want to ruin our time here with this stress.

"I'm fully aware of the fairy/sera fae war, and I know Niall's personality a bit or at least enough to know that in a battle he would strike first and ask questions later, but I'm curious why you think he won't listen if one of us calls him and explains the situation to him."

Eric sighed, "It's more of a gut instinct that I have Sookie. Niall is very old and his hatred of the 'scrios' as he calls your kind is absolute. When he was younger, generations after the war began; the fairies and scrios had reached a balance between the lines. It lasted a few hundred years, but with the recent increase in iron from the industrial revolution, destruction of the sacred forests and streams by pollution and human encroachment, the fairies have become weaker and that balance has tipped in favor of the scrios. He has watched as his line and that of the water fairies has weakened, while at the same time, your line has had remained strong. He knows that the scrios have a constant source of energy and power provided by volcanic eruptions, but the fairies' sources of energy are not so easily renewable. Niall fears this imbalance, and blames you for the dwindling numbers of his kind," Eric explained to me.

"I'm aware of all of that and it's a load of crap. A lot of the damage to the forests happened back in Pele's early years and now with the Britlingens training us, there are fewer and fewer accidents with sera fae losing control of their powers. I happen to be one of those who did have a problem, but that won't happen again. Plus, there are only a handful of sera fae in existence, so he shouldn't be so threatened by us. It's just an excuse to continue an age old dispute."

"That doesn't change the fact that he hates all of your kind Sookie," Eric said sternly.

"Right," I snapped, "but that's the global picture. Hunter and I are part sky fairy, we have his blood. I'm his great-granddaughter for God's sake, he loved me."

Eric looked away from me, not a good sign. "Sookie, how many times did you see him?"

I frowned at him and shrugged so he answered for me. "Only a handful of times and he knew of your existence for only a very few years. He moved on quickly after mourning you for a few moments. I saw it, his focus was on the scrios and he never looked back.

"You saw how he turned away your brother and his son Dermot because they were not exactly what he wanted them to be. He desired you because you had the spark and were talented beyond what was usual for humans with one-eighth-fairy blood. Now that your blood is different and you are different; do you really expect him to be more accepting of you than he was of Jason?"

No I didn't, it hurt, but Eric might be right. It would be in Niall's character to love my blood and my spark more than he loved me. He surely didn't spend any time getting to know me at all.

"But that brings me to another point and one that will be harder for you to hear," Eric said seriously. I encouraged him to continue, I could handle whatever he had to say.

"In the last year, I have begun to think that perhaps he knew more about your line than he told me. I realize now that he must know about the sera fae's way of breeding and he never mentioned that the scrios were telepathic, but I wonder if he actually knew all along. If he did know this, then it would not be a far stretch to assume that he would have made the assumption that your telepathy identified you as an undeveloped scrios. It would explain why he never took independent steps to protect you when you were in danger."

I gaped at him and he held up a finger to silence me. "He never made a move to protect you without being asked first. Once asked for help, he provided it, but he was on the front line of the war, why was he not more proactive about protecting you if he treasured you so much? It is my assumption, and I have to prepare for the worst to keep you safe, that he was letting nature take its course with you, knowing that when he led his enemies to you, they would be killing off a potential future scrios and he would not have to be the one to lift the sword."

"No. He sent Claudine to watch over me before we even met, she saved my life a couple of times," I protested.

Eric bared his teeth in anger, "He sent her to watch you, and she had to save you since she was working her way up to being an angel."

I shook my head, "He sent her to guard me that last night when I was in Ludwig's hospital."

His fangs ran out and his eyes flashed, "He did not. She demanded to be there, when Niall left you under the pretense of hunting down his opponents even though Breandan was on his way to find you."

I wasn't ready to relent, "He was always trying to give me a gift; he bribed the FBI to leave me alone," I argued.

Eric mastered himself a little, retracting his fangs and unclenching his jaw, "Was his goal to give you a gift or to get you to say 'thank you' to him and thus be in his debt? Plus what safer life could you have than as the protected telepathic puppet of the FBI? You would have been taken away from the portal and perhaps even hidden away from him again. I believe he wanted you to stay right where you were." I shook my head, not wanting to believe his words, but having a hard time convincing myself he was wrong.

"He closed the portal," I said, losing my will to fight.

"Not all the way," Eric reminded me, "It was still penetrable, you told me yourself that messages were passed back and forth."

Not just messages. I myself had proven that a body could fit through that portal. I made one more weak effort, "He saved me from Naeve and Lochlan," I whispered, remembering how relieved I'd been to see him that awful night.

"Only after being contacted by Bill at my behest," Eric countered with venom in his voice.

Eric was assuming the very worst from each of Niall's actions. I understood his need to anticipate the worst-case scenario, and I could almost believe it…almost. But there was something that I felt from Niall when we were together that made me refuse to fully jump on this bandwagon.

Eric kept pressing, "Niall led his enemies straight to you, he put a portal right in your woods, he knew that you had killed a fairy warrior in your backyard who had come through the portal and still didn't send anyone to protect you. Dermot removed Amelia's wards and allowed in two kidnappers who nearly abducted you, and Niall never used the breath of life on you even though you were aging and were nearly killed at the hands of his enemies. You might have died if I hadn't given you my blood, and yet Niall, who is incredibly magical, did nothing."

I sat in silence for a while, taking in everything Eric had said, my mind seeing the possible validity of every word but my heart kicking and screaming, trying to find some way to prove that he was wrong. I couldn't form one argument to definitively defend Niall's actions…not one.

I shook my head a little to clear it. There was nothing I could do to prove or disprove his allegations about Niall right now. However, even if I couldn't bring myself to accept everything he was saying, it couldn't hurt to prepare for the worst. "So what are you suggesting we do? I won't hide down here forever," I said, looking back up at him.

Eric was relieved that I wasn't going to fight with him about this. "What did the Britlingens suggest?" he asked, relaxing his tense face.

"They wanted me to stay in Hawaii or near another volcanically active region," I said.

"Then that's what you should do," he determined quickly.

Oh hell no, that's not going to happen, "No." I said firmly, "I'm staying with you, Eric."

He nodded and gave me a small smile, "There are other options. You should be relatively safe anytime you are in the company of vampires, but this is not absolute. Any fairy who can block his or her essence can sneak in and attack you before anyone realizes anything is happening. You are safe in this building and we can ward any others you want, but it would be the transition between buildings that would be risky, however we could all be on high alert for those periods of time.

"I can also start looking into the possibility of taking over Hawaii or Washington State so we don't have this problem. Washington is relatively weak and might fall easily, but then that brings me trouble with the Narayana clan…" his voice trailed off.

"And they're already upset with you over the fairy situation," I completed his thought.

"Yes," he confirmed, "for now, the best option would be for you to either spend your days near a volcanic region when you need to recharge or in this or other properly warded building and your nights close to myself or Pam and the guards at all times. I know you are capable, but extra pairs of eyes are always useful."

I frowned at him and he continued, "It's possible that if Niall can't get to you, he'll try to take out Pam or I first, so having you close by to help us in a fight will be a benefit to us all." He really knew how to play his cards with me. Simply by mentioning that he or Pam might be in danger was enough to stop me from being irritated by the idea of added security. That was, until he played one too many cards, "I'll be giving you at least one of my guards, I have enough protection as it is."

I knew from his dream at the summit that he only had three personal guards and I wouldn't for a second even think of leaving him exposed. "Cut it out Eric, you don't have to use reverse psychology with me, bring in a handful of guards and I'll test them out to see who would be flexible enough to deal with my mode of travel and my routines." He smiled, apparently proud that I had seen through his games and certainly very happy that he hadn't had to fight me to get his way.

I let him bask in his satisfaction for a moment before I added, "But I'm going to give Niall a chance Eric. I won't hide from him indefinitely or just assume that he'll turn his back on me. If you're right, he already knows I've changed so it won't matter, but if he doesn't know, then telling him might help."

Eric frowned and then nodded, "Either way, he'll want to see you. We'll wait to contact him until you are back to your full strength and we have all our security measures in place and the guards are familiar with you and your routines."

That was fair, so I raised an eyebrow, trying to diffuse the tension this topic bought, "I can agree to that," I said with a smile.

He picked up my hand and kissed it, "Thank you Sookie," he said with his lips brushing my skin. I just loved when he did that.

"Uh, oh," I said, mockingly shaking my head with concern, "you've said 'thank you' to me twice already, aren't you afraid that you'll be in my debt by saying that?" I asked winding my fingers into his hair possessively.

He shook his head, "I would already do anything for you," he answered.

Liar. "Hmmm, anything?" I asked, my doubt clear in my voice.

"Almost anything," he said deviously.

"You know, I think that's the first time you've outright lied to me Eric. Don't tell me what you think I want to hear, tell me the truth. I wasn't kidding before; I'll always expect you to be open and honest with me like you have been down here. I won't tolerate being handled."

I tried playing a card from his own deck, "If I don't have the whole truth, how can you expect me to make the best decisions? We won't be together all the time and I'll need to make the choices that will keep us all safe. To do that, I'll need to be included in the loop of information that keeps both you and Pam up to date on things."

He laughed, "Well played Sookie. I had planned to do nothing less. I hope that you'll become an integral part of my team and find a position that will keep you happy and fulfilled like you did with the foundations you started in Hana."

I squeezed his hand, "Now another big question. I'm sure you already have a plan, so how do you suggest we go about my re-introduction to the supernatural community?" I asked.

"Good," he said, happy that I was thinking along these lines. "We will start slowly, first with my primary team and then have you sit in on a few other meetings, first with non-threatening associates and later with others. You will of course have to keep your essence blocked at all times when you are in this building" he said sadly, "or it will linger on your clothes and on me. We will have to do some experiments to determine if you can stop blocking it in my quarters and we will have to desensitize your guards and the rest of my team, including my sheriffs, to your scent so they…"

I held up my hands to halt him, "Stop, I get it. Thank you for being so thorough, I'm sure we'll go through all of this once we're out of here. I guess what I really want to know is what you want to do about the greater community?"

"Today is October 8th, I host a party each year near Halloween, this year it's on October 27th. I was hoping to announce your return that night. Most vampires from the state and many supporters from other kingdoms attend along with some weres and humans, so it should be a good time to make a safe entrance to the community."

"Okay, that sounds reasonable," I answered, glad that he'd obviously put so much thought into the timeline.

"Do you have any other questions?" he asked me, leering at me as he licked my pinkie. Even if I did have any, I would have forgotten them at that moment. I shook my head and the next second, I was flat on my back in the bed. I loved that he was still able to surprise me. We made love many times during that final night of seclusion, treasuring our last few hours of solitude together.

I had one more thing to discuss with him, so during a brief break I pushed him onto his back and straddled his hips. He looked at me quizzically as I searched for the right words. "I understand and respect your tradition of claiming me as yours and I'm honored to have received that gift from you," I began and his eyes softened and he placed his hand on my cheek. "I want you to be clear that even though I don't have that tradition to support my claim, I feel the same way about you. I won't share you with anyone Eric and I won't be perceived as anything less than your respected colleague and equal partner."

To my surprise, he smiled widely, "Say it again Sookie, without the addendum."

What? Oh, I knew what he wanted and I liked it. I hovered over him and placed my hands on each side of his head to trap him on the bed and said with a slight growl, "You. Are. Mine, Eric Northman."

I was suddenly on my back and he was attacking me with his lips and hands, "Mine," I said, because it made him crazy and I was rewarded with a rabid growl.

"I have been waiting a long time to hear you say that Sookie," he said between kisses and I prayed that we would have a long time to explore this fascinating new relationship we were entering.

He pushed me up so my hands hit the headboard and my knees found purchase on the mattress on either side of his head. He placed one hand on my lower back to keep me where he wanted me as his mouth and other hand found my center, working me lovingly. When I reached my peak I begged him, "Bite me, Eric," but he let me climax with only gentle kisses.

He waited for me to relax before he pulled me back down his body, kissed me on the lips and said, "No Sookie, I've had enough of your blood. You're too weak, more so than I think you realize. I'll wait until we are both stronger to take larger quantities."

"What about you, don't tell me TrueBlood is keeping you at your best," I argued.

He brushed off my concern, "I can wait," he said with a smile and a gentle kiss on my nose, "don't worry about me."

That was an impossible request for me to comply with, "That's not possible Eric and when things are busier, you're going to need more blood…more than I'll be able to give you all the time," I said.

"I'll drink TrueBlood," he countered confidently.

"No." I said firmly. I want you as strong as you can be. If I can't give you enough, I want you to drink human blood."

He looked at me for while, reading my expressions. "You want me to drink blood from someone else? I thought you weren't willing to share me."

He was right, but this was a different situation all together, "I want you to be strong and I don't view this as sharing you. You're only taking, not giving and so long as there is nothing intimate going on when you drink, I don't have any problems with it. Don't get me wrong, you only have sex with me but I want you to feel free to get the sustenance you need. I'd feel even better if I could screen the humans for you before you drink, to make sure they're healthy," I said, thinking about Jerry who had Sino-AIDS and who had almost infected Bill when I'd first met him.

"You have become very wise Sookie," he said quietly, running his thumb along my cheek, "and…more thoughtful as well."

I kissed his cheeks and then his brow; "I have some different perspectives now than I used to have and I've figured out what's really important and worth fighting for in my life."

o-o-o-o

The next evening, Eric awoke with an agenda as we readied ourselves to return to the surface and real life. I blocked my scent and showered to wash away my essence and then enjoyed a thorough round of loving to ensure that I smelled strongly of Eric. This was a part of vampire possessiveness I could really get into. He had yet to bring up the possibility of a blood exchange, so I made sure to transfer as much of his fragrance onto me as possible, I was all for my scent screaming 'hands off' to anyone stupid enough to look at me twice in Eric's presence. I was open to taking his blood to reopen the bond, and mark myself or both of us as 'belonging' to the other, but that would have to be his gift to give when and if he was ever ready.

Later, Eric showered and we both dressed. I was pleased to see that he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, I'd hoped that he wouldn't have to dress up each day since I knew he preferred casual clothes. Unless of course the events called for nicer attire, and then he rocked whatever he wore.

I was unsure of what to wear until he pointed out an outfit that was separate from the others. It was a dressy-casual mauve skirt with a fitted cream sweater and discretely treaded flats that strapped firmly onto my feet. Upon further exploration, I noted that the whole outfit appeared to be custom made for me. The skirt was a wrap around design and had easy access to three hidden pockets which secured two small iron daggers and a lightweight stake without messing up the drape of the skirt. The sweater's bottom hem held a thin-linked iron chain, which was accessed through a small hole at the front. I was initially nervous about having the iron so close to my body, but a quick touch test relieved me of any concerns. I loved the outfit and looked at Eric in wonder.

"Miriam designed those for you. There's a closet upstairs full of similar clothes waiting for you. It's all Hunter's fault really," he said with a smile when I gaped at him. "Once Hunter learned that Pam's child was a designer, he put her to task making him clothing that could hide his weapons, the discrete pockets were designed with him in mind. Miriam's been working on a line inspired by him that he's been wearing for the past five months." I shook my head in amazement at all that had been happening while I was away. "It was quite amusing watching her try to design clothing for someone she's never seen and who's measurements kept changing every few weeks."

Eric had me wait while he gathered a few items he needed from the other rooms and while he was gone, I took some time to do a security sweep of the building. Everything seemed fine until I searched the areas around the building and my heart sank with what I found.

"We can't go out this way," I told Eric when he returned with a bag and his sword. "What's wrong," he asked. "I can sense a few fairy minds on the roof of a building right next to this one. They must be waiting for us to come out this way."

He frowned and nodded, "I thought that might be the case. We'll have to go through the main rooms," he looked at me apologetically. "The outside of the door to my closet sustained damage and it was not responding when I tried to come in through that way when I first arrived. I was able to get it to open from this side when I took your blood to Maeve but it will take a few seconds longer than usual. Do you think you can tolerate being in there for that long?"

I nodded, "Nothing drastic will happen in a minute or two, I'll be fine," I answered, hoping I was telling the truth. He contemplated the situation for a minute, "You've been away from the iron for a number of days, you may have a similar reaction to when you first arrived," he stated.

That was probable, but I could handle the dizziness, it was the emotional upheaval I was worried about and it shouldn't affect me that quickly. "I'll be fine," I said again.

He nodded, "Are you nervous?" he asked, gesturing up to where his room was. I shrugged, "A little. You?"

He ran a finger along my eyebrow, "Only about your safety," he said seriously.

I reached up and took his hand, holding it firmly, "I'll be safe so long as you tell me everything and let me be an active participant in our security."

He nodded solemnly, "I promise to share with you, Sookie. I know that in the past I withheld important details of my life from you, but I will not do so anymore. You are the same woman I loved, but you now need more from me and I will give it to you."

"Thank you. I'm not an easy woman Eric; I'm still changing and will probably always be changing. Are you ready for that?" I asked, hoping I knew the answer.

"Have your feelings for me altered as you have changed?" he asked.

I shook my head, "No, never. My love for you has been one of the few constants in my life," I answered honestly. Eric smiled, "There we have our answer. So long as you love me, your changes will be inconsequential and we will adapt. Together." His blue eyes were glowing bright and I could feel his love rolling over me in warm waves.

"I love you Eric," I said, cupping his cheek in my hand.

"As I love you Sookie, my wife," he said and bent to kiss me. I gasped at his words, causing him to pause in his actions.

His eyes froze and I could sense the ghosts hidden behind his words. I put a hand on his arm, "I'm sorry I was such a fool Eric. I don't know how you tolerated me before, but I won't be throwing your gift away this time," I said, kissing his lips softly. I felt the smile on his lips before I saw his eyes soften.

He kissed me again and then said, "We can have a wedding to make it official for you anytime you wish."

I shook my head and pressed my cheek to his and then pulled back to look directly into his dark blue eyes, happy to have the chance to say these words to him, to heal that hurt. "We're married in the only way that matters to me Eric," I said and suddenly I was crushed to him in a tight embrace and on the receiving end of a kiss that weakened my knees and made my head swim.

"You never cease to amaze me Sookie," he said, his voice happy and strong. He let me go and reached into the messenger bag he had slung across his chest and pulled out a small black velvet bag. He opened the drawstring on the bag and tipped the contents into his hand. Two rings fell out into his palm. Instead of feeling nervous, I felt as though he had just turned a key in a lock on the door that held our future behind it. I sensed a release of pressure in my chest, which was suddenly warm and exceptionally full of love and confidence in our future.

He palmed one ring, picked up my left hand and kissed my ring finger before slipping the ring onto my finger and he then kissed the ring followed by my lips before stepping back a little. I hadn't seen it clearly before, but I gasped as I looked down at the ring. I looked up at him, tears threatening but I held them back. "You found it," I whispered, wonder and relief thick in my voice. I looked back at the ring and ran a finger over the center stone; a large cushion cut Peridot, the exact same light green color as the one in the pendant I had lost in the cottage a year ago. On each side of the Peridot were two emerald cut dark blood red rubies. The rest of the band was set with small but brilliant dark blue sapphires.

"I have your pendant, it's upstairs," he said and I gaped at him, amazed that he had understood how precious it was to me.

He put his finger on the Peridot, "You." He slid his finger to indicate the rubies, "Me." He then turned my hand over and kissed the palm side of my ring, which was lined with the sapphires, "Us." I was incredibly moved by the thought he'd put into the rings and that he'd had these made while I was away. It was so right for me, for us.

I put my hand on his cheek and leaned in to kiss him, "Thank you Eric, it's perfect." Then I sought out his other hand and accepted the heavy ring he placed in my palm. It was similar to mine in coloring but it was a thick band in two rows of geometric patterns that gave the distinct impression of strength and power. Between the two rows ran the same current of colors from my ring. I took his left hand in mine and kissed his finger as he had kissed mine, "You don't have to wear a ring," I said, "I know it's a new tradition for men to wear wedding rings."

He smiled, "I wish it," and so I slid the ring onto his finger, kissed it and then his lips.

"Now we are ready," he said with a smile.

And so we turned to face the door, holding the other's hand as we prepared to take a step towards our future and the rest of our lives…together.


	34. Chapter 34

A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, alerted and placed this story on their favorites this week. Your support and feedback always gives me such a boost! A big thanks to Charhamblin, my beta for this chapter, you're the best!  
>A quick note to clarify two points:<br>-I was going to stop the story at the last chapter but changed my mind, there were too many loose ends. I'll be here writing for a while yet until I wrap this baby up. It's going to take a while, I think.  
>-Since two people have asked: Sookie has already seen Jason and his family in Chapter 26 (I know, I get all the stories mixed up too).<p>

-Just a reminder, CH owns her characters, I'm just playing with them.

Happy fourth of July everyone!

Chapter 34  
>Emergence<p>

Eric opened the door and we both stepped out into the short hallway. I clenched my teeth together and squared my shoulders as my head began to spin, determined not to let the iron get the best of me again. I knew that once I got used to it, the iron wouldn't make me feel so sick, but that knowledge didn't help me right now.

Eric swept me up and I held onto him, he was my only way of knowing which direction was up with the thrill ride going on in my head. "You'll have to go first," I said with my head resting on his shoulder, "I'll fly up and out when you have the door open."

Eric carried me back into the bedroom, kissed me and set me down in the chair, "I know you wanted us to go up together, but this is the smarter choice," he said gently. "You won't be able to hear my voice, so open your mind to me so you'll know when I'm ready for you," and with that, he was gone.

The dizziness was clearing and I was able to appreciate just how smoothly Eric had adapted to our ability to communicate telepathically. He'd needed to adapt constantly throughout his lifetime and this was just one more shift in his mindset. I admired him for his flexibility and pledged to myself to try and bend just as flexibly as we moved forth together.

I peeled back my shields and heard him mentally snarling at the door, "Victor, open the West entrance," he said for a second time and when the mechanism only groaned, he pried open a panel on the right side of the door. I watched through his eyes with fascination, trying to gain a little knowledge about electronics from him as he fished around inside the cavity for the correct wires. I'd learned a lot about using technology, but I was still clueless as to how to fix it. So long as it did what it was supposed to do when I wanted it to do it, then we were friends. Otherwise…not so much.

He gave a grunt of satisfaction as the door clicked and slid open a few inches. When it didn't go any farther, he pushed it open all the way but when he let it go, it began to slide shut again causing him to have to hold it open. That was my cue to act.

I stood up and opened the door only as far as I would need and then shifted into a hawk. As quickly as I could, I hopped through the doorway and took flight. It was only a short distance, but I lost my focus when my head began to swim again. I had a quick memory of Sam telling me that he didn't like to take on the form of birds since he was afraid of running into power lines and I finally understood what he meant. I just couldn't keep on a straight path. I managed to land back on the floor safely but I didn't think I could pull myself together enough to fly up to the door.

I heard Eric's concern and then I felt his mind pressing on mine, I let him in and immediately felt a sense of security and strength coming straight from him. It reminded me a little of our lost bond and rather than fight what he was giving me the way I had done so frequently in the past, I accepted it and allowed him to sustain and ground me.

For one horrible moment, I was tempted to close my shields when I felt Eric falter in the air as he accepted my weakness, but he recovered quickly and pushed his influence on me more fervently than before. The swell of well being grew within me and my mind stopped spinning, allowing me to refocus on the door. Spreading my wings, I took flight a second time and headed straight for the source of my comfort. I made it to the door easily and just as I had wanted, we flew out together.

I landed, shifted back to my regular form and threw myself into his arms. "Thank you," I whispered as we held onto each other, and I slowly came to the realization that I was finally free from that twisted enclosure. "Are you okay?" I asked, remembering how worried I was about him when I felt him trade his strength for my weakness.

"I adapted quickly," he said, brushing off my concern and kissing my forehead.

I took a few deep breaths and with each one, I could feel the deleterious effects of the iron seeping out of my body, slowly freeing me from its clutches. I sighed deeply in relief and the next thing I knew, I was curled up in Eric's arms as he reclined on the couch in his bedroom. His concerned eyes dimmed briefly with sadness as he gazed down on me and I smiled up at him, running my fingers along his jaw. "Did I blink out there for a minute?" I asked, sighing with contentment. I was so relaxed here in his arms.

He smiled back at me, "A minute…two hours…little difference."

My hand fell back to my side, "I've been out for two hours? Why didn't you wake me?" I asked anxiously.

He pulled on my chin playfully, "You're implying that I didn't try," he answered with a small smile, "Let's just say that I am very happy you decided to come back to me."

I stretched as I looked around the room, and I froze when I saw the blackened metal where the fairies had used their magic to try and gain entrance to the chamber below. I wondered if Niall had been among them, trying to break down the door so he could find a way to kill his own great granddaughter. I was filled with sadness and anger at the thought of that man I tried so hard to love wanting to hurt me.

Eric nudged me with his mind, sending me peace, and I felt my worry about the fairies retreating. I smiled at him, kissed his chest and gently allowed my shields to slide closed, blocking him out once again. He glowered at me and started to say something but we were interrupted.

"Welcome back Sookie," a familiar voice spoke from a chair on the far side of the room behind me. "That was quite interesting to watch," Pam said, staring at me through narrowed eyes.

"What do you mean?" I asked looking from her to Eric and back again.

Eric answered, cutting Pam off right before she spoke, "You lost consciousness right after we entered the room. I carried you here to the couch and called Pam to join us. As you slept, your breathing changed so that you were taking slow breaths in followed by a fast burst of breath out, and every few minutes, we could see a change in you that confirmed for us that your body was cleansing itself of the iron."

I glanced at my hair from the corner of my eye and saw that my curl was back and I knew I had once again taken on a more fairy-like appearance. A quick check of my powers told me I could teleport whenever I wanted and I was sure that my other fairy abilities had returned as well. I wasn't as strong as I had been once I had adapted to the iron-filled rooms, but I felt good, more…me than I had for a while. I definitely needed to spend tomorrow outside, preferably at the inlet in Hana where I had healed, but I had thankfully found some semblance of balance again.

I glanced back at Eric as I understood the brief sadness I'd seen in his eyes. "Sorry," I whispered, with a sad smile.

He shook his head, and ran the back of his fingers down the side of my face, "How you look means nothing to me Sookie," but I didn't fully believe him.

"Pam," Eric said firmly, without looking at her, "Come back at eleven." She left the room and I heard the door lock as it slid shut behind her. I looked at Eric questioningly. "I want to wipe the doubt out of your eyes and prove to you that I still find you beautiful," Eric said with a sly smile. I chuckled and slid my hands under his shirt, not really needing this reassurance, but happy to take it nonetheless.

o-o-o

At five minutes to eleven, I pushed Eric's wandering hands away from me, effectively stopping what could have easily turned into another nightlong session of incredible sex. What the hell was I thinking? Oh yeah, that's right, "Pam will be here in 5 minutes and I doubt she'll have the courtesy to wait outside until we finish," I said, still wondering who this idiot was speaking through my mouth.

Eric growled, "Let her wait. Let her watch, maybe she'll learn a few new tricks," and he pulled me back to him, licked my neck and ran his fingers lightly over my nipple.

I hummed, "Okay," as I reached behind him and grabbed his butt cheeks to pull him to me. Hey, it was his timeline and his staff who were waiting for us, not mine. "Just make her wait outside," I said, nipping at his shoulder with my teeth.

He gave a frustrated growl before he pulled away a few inches, and I couldn't hold back my laugh as he ranted at me, "You are supposed to be the conscientious one, worried about schedules and keeping people waiting."

"Nope," I lied mischievously, "I live on Hawaii time now, and I'm not in any rush." That did it, I only got one more kiss and then he was off me, pulling on his clothes, still grumbling. I jumped out of bed and caressed his butt just before he encased it in his jeans. I caught his eye as I closed the door to the bathroom, and saw that he looked concerned. "I won't wash your scent away," I promised and he gave me a predatory look that had me snapping the door shut behind me.

I cleaned up and then dressed quickly. When I emerged from the bedroom, Eric was in the sitting room conversing with Pam. They both turned to me when I entered and sniffed at me, Pam gave me a knowing leer.

Vampires.

I sat down on the couch next to Pam, Eric was reclined in a big chair to our left with his legs straight out in front of him and crossed at the ankle. "Some of our plans for the night have changed Sookie," Eric said in a businesslike tone, "Maeve will still be here at midnight to meet you and discuss warding of my residence and other safe houses. I will be with you until that business is concluded but then I'll be meeting with Freyda. She'll be stopping here to see me before returning to Oklahoma. You're welcome to sit in on that meeting, I wish to introduce the two of you properly anyway. If you decide not to stay for the duration of the meeting, I'll ask that you remain in my private areas until I can accompany you around the building."

I knew that his over-protectiveness was just the beginning, but I took a breath and reminded myself that all good things come at a price and I was willing to pay the price to build my life here with Eric. "I'll play it by ear," I answered.

Eric continued, "When I have finished with the debriefing from Freyda we'll be meeting with my front line security team which consists of two vampires and a Were. The meeting will be brief, allowing me to introduce you as my wife so they can begin to prepare plans for your protection and then we will return here," he said and his fangs ran out a little bit.

That wasn't going to work. Not at all. Well, his plans for after we met with his guards would, but I not the rest. I debated what to do, Eric was laying his plans down like a monarch, so I treated him outwardly like one and told him silently, _'I don't agree with your plans for our meeting with the guards, do you want me to voice them in front of Pam?'_

He showed no sign of having heard me except for saying to Pam, "Leave. I will inform you when I am ready for you again." Way to be subtle Eric.

When she was gone, he raised an eyebrow at me. "Listen Eric," I said, "it would be a mistake to introduce me to your guards as your wife without giving them an idea as to what my abilities are. Any plans they set for our joint protection will be faulty because they don't have the right information. They need to know what I can do in an emergency." Eric was looking at me passively, so I continued, "In fact, I think they might need to see some of what I can do."

I explained my ideas but was cut off with an angry, retort, "No. You are still weak. Rest tomorrow in Hana, heal, then you can do this tomorrow night."

I shook my head and stood up, pacing around the room. "Eric, I'm not going to stand there like some damsel in distress with my purse in my hand and present myself to them as a liability to you." He opened his mouth, but I continued, "You know that's what everyone will think when they see me and hear why we need tighter protection. I'm bringing all kinds of danger to you and your kingdom. I need to have the chance to prove that I'm also an asset."

"You will do that tomorrow night, after you have rested," he said firmly.

I held my ground, "Then don't tell them anything about me until then."

Eric's lips thinned as he pressed them together, "They need time to prepare and to seek out other guards for you."

Ah-ha, here it was, I kept my smile of triumph from my face. "Exactly my point Eric. How can they find an appropriate guard for me if they think I'm some needy little girl? They'll pick up some hulking Were who's more brawn than brains and who'll take a minute to recover every time I teleport with him. Who will be the liability then Eric? You know I wouldn't leave a guard behind if we were in danger."

Eric put his chin on his laced fingers and contemplated the situation. I gave him the time, but continued to walk around the room, taking it in for the first time really. It was a large space that appeared to be an entryway of sorts to other rooms. I knew one door opened into the bedroom and another led to the horizontally moving elevator and the other offices. I hadn't learned where the other closed doors led to yet, but I was sure that I'd be getting a tour soon.

This room was clearly made for relaxing. Eric looked very comfortable in the large dark leather chair and I knew that the matching couch was perfect for a nap or more pleasurable pursuits, like maybe watching a movie…or not. I walked over to the large dark cabinet on the opposite side of the room and noted that there was a slot in the top that I was sure allowed a screen to rise up through when Eric wanted to watch television.

Overall, the room was very crisp and masculine with dark furniture and floors and the walls were a raw sienna color that was warm yet calming at the same time. The rich walls were enhanced with bold paintings splashed with color, mostly in the families of the colors blue, gold and green.

I stopped in front of a large vertically hung painting of a moonrise over still water mounted in a clean lined thin black frame with a gold mat. The painting was fascinating, not just because of the beauty of the artistry, but because it had clearly been created by a vampire. The tones of the colors at night were exactly as I had seen them through Eric's eyes when he was envisioning himself on my land in Hana to help me fall asleep.

Unlike a picture of a sunrise, this one was less powerfully dramatic and more soulful in a way. I felt at peace as I gazed into the landscape and could almost feel myself being pulled into the picture. I would very much like to meet the vampire who had created such a masterpiece.

Eric's fingers closed around my shoulders, I put my hands on top of his, "Eric," I said with quiet awe, "this is beautiful, who painted it?"

I felt him rest his chin lightly on my head before he said, "Thalia."

I craned my neck around to look up at him in shock, "Thalia?" I asked unbelievingly.

He nodded, "She gave that to me on the night I let her return from her temporary post as Arkansas' regent."

That was another shock, I would never have seen her as a choice for regent. He saw the skepticism in my expression, "She is more than she appears to be," he said and then he kissed me on the forehead and changed topics, "You are strong enough for this? Physically and mentally?"

I looked up at him and knew he had seen the validity of my argument. "Yes," I answered, relieved that I would have the chance to be seen as taking my first steps in this new life with my own two feet rather than riding behind on Eric's coattails.

o-o-o

Pam returned with about twenty minutes to spare before we had to go and meet Eric's witch and she filled us in on some details from the summit. "Micah handled the lawsuits competently as expected, and the complainants were forced to return the reparations you originally paid them. It appears that the judges were intolerant of having their time wasted especially since you had been vindicated and praised by the Pythoness," she said with a grin.

Eric nodded but his face remained serious, "We have averted the initial attack, but it was a weak effort and that is not Wu's usual mode of operation. More is coming. You have reiterated to everyone to be on high alert for the secondary assault?" Pam nodded. I knew my eyes widened in shock at the casual way they were discussing an impending attack by a reportedly very cunning enemy, but they ignored my reaction.

"What is the status of the trade agreements?" Eric asked. Pam sat back in the chair, relaxing into the familiar rhythm she and Eric had, "Yes for limestone with Missouri, no to Kansas. I played with Dakotas for a while over bamboo but of course turned him down," she said with at sly smile. "Illinois made a very tempting offer, which I accepted." Eric's eyes blazed and bored briefly into mine when she mentioned Dakotas, "I assume you handled that carefully, Piers Orrick is not…" he stopped talking when Pam shot him a withering look. "I trust you Pam, but I do not like being out of the loop and I don't trust him with anything that is mine, including you," Eric said firmly, looking at both of us in turn.

Eric was very right not to trust Piers Orrick, he was King of North and South Dakota and I had joined Clovache and Batanya on a mission in his kingdom when he summoned the Britlingens to help protect him during an attack by neighboring Montana. We weren't allowed to fight to help him keep his throne; we were simply there to protect him from bodily harm. He was, and still is because we did our job well, a grade "A" jackass who uses and abuses everyone around him to get what he considers to be his due.

As I had already recounted to Eric, it was at Orrick's service that I was made to defend myself from his own child. I had seen it coming of course; Orrick had been ruminating on how to keep a Britlingen to use for his own purposes. So I allowed his child, who was under his maker's orders, to get close enough to send him flying into the wall and back to his maker, moaning in pain from his burns.

No one had bothered us after that, but it didn't keep Orrick from coveting our abilities and powers. The one good thing about Piers Orrick was that he was greedy but stupid, so that made him dangerous on a short term basis, but I didn't worry about him too much for the long term, not like I did Queen Wu. She was one we did need to worry about.

Pam smiled sweetly at Eric, "I'll recount every detail if you wish," she said and that is exactly what she did.

By the time midnight rolled around, I had a decent idea of what Louisiana's goals had been at the summit and a base understanding of Eric's network of supporters and critics throughout the clan. I was able to integrate a lot of the information since I'd had some experience in the business world, but the political side was new to me and I found that I still hated the game playing and double-dealing that was required to get even the smallest thing accomplished between kingdoms.

I was quiet and contemplative as Eric led me out a new door of his sitting room into an office and then through a secure door, which led through a small space and then into an elevator. I noted with approval that the elevator door didn't open until the one behind had slipped closed. This time the elevator went down instead of moving sideways and when it stopped, the door opened into a large office that was familiar to me as the office where I had once met Sophie Anne, Peter Threadgill, Andre and Jade Flower.

It was amazing to me that those four long-lived vampires were all now finally dead. The décor here was much changed with Sophie Anne's feminine touches having been replaced by a more conservative version of Eric's style and so the room was now effectively a study in minimalist masculinity. The large round table was still present, but it was free from clutter unlike the last time I had been here and I could see that both the table and the chairs were made of a wood that was stained about two shades darker than the gleaming hardwood floor. I stopped walking and looked around some more, disturbed by what I was seeing. Eric paused as well and watched me patiently.

The built in bookshelves held hundreds of volumes of all ages and when I walked over and ran a finger along the bookshelf, I saw that the titles were in a variety of languages. I turned to Eric, allowing my irritation to show in my expression, "This is you public office? This is where you meet with friend and foe?" I asked incredulously.

Eric raised an eyebrow at the tone of my voice, "It is one of my many meeting spaces, yes."

I huffed and ran my fingers again over the bookshelf and then the table top, "What were you thinking Eric? Everything is wood; there are weapons everywhere for anyone who wants to attack you."

"I like the way you're thinking, but it's not wood Sookie," he said smiling gently at me, "it's bamboo. Bamboo has turned out to be an excellent replacement for wood since it's quite durable but is a grass rather than wood. I don't care much for metal tables and so had all the metal in the areas I frequent replaced with bamboo made items. It's actually become one of our most popular new crops and our top export. We've been very successful with starting bamboo farms throughout the middle and northern regions of the kingdom. Humans like it because it can be grown to maturity within a few years and doesn't require pesticides. We're even near the end of the process of working with the humans to open three new environmentally friendly processing plants to create flooring and furniture like you see here. Until now, we've been sending the bamboo out of the kingdom for processing and that obviously cuts into our profits."

"You're working with the humans on this?" I asked, completely shocked and proud of him. "Members from my human relations department are, not me," he answered. I gaped at him for a while until he raised an eyebrow, "Eric, that's…that's really forward-thinking of you." He frowned, "Most vampires do not see it that way, but bamboo has become one of our most valuable trade commodities, especially with the northern half of the kingdoms where it doesn't grow so readily. As you can imagine, it is very popular within the vampire community."

"Did you use it back in Area 5?" I couldn't remember, the whole concept wouldn't even have crossed my mind back then, but I thought I remembered him having wood items there.

"No, I used metal where I could and wood where I had to," he answered with a one shouldered shrug. I huffed out my displeasure at the risks he took; still not able to shake the feeling of foreboding I had about this space, but took his hand again when he offered it. We continued through the office to another set of secure doors similar to the one we went through before the elevator. This added security was obviously designed to allow only one to two people through at a time. We stepped out of the second door and into a smaller room that had a rectangular table for six at one end and four comfortable chairs at the other.

An intense wave of unease and distrust hit me the minute I stepped over the threshold into the room. I came to a complete stop and my body tensed, preparing to defend us from whatever was sending out such disturbing energy. I knew instinctively that whatever was in this room was not natural and conflicted horribly with the magic within me.

I felt Eric looking at me, but my eyes snapped to the woman seated in one of the chairs at the far end of the room. She had long curling red hair, freckled pale skin and wore a nice pair of slate grey slacks and a light blue scoop top with flowers in brown, gray and white embellished at the top. It was a nice looking hippie chic style I had seen a lot of on Hawaii and it worked for her, but I could see through her façade.

She jumped up as we entered, and she began to chant under her breath. I immediately lowered my shields, held onto Eric tighter in case I needed to teleport us out of here and I felt my body begin to hum with the anticipation of a fight.

Eric stepped between us; forcing me to release him. His stance was protective of us both. I didn't like that he was exposing himself in this way to someone who clearly was not what she appeared to be. She was not just a witch, I'd never felt this kind of power from Amelia or Octavia. I forced myself to focus on her thoughts and was surprised to hear that she was having almost identical thoughts to mine, the same reaction to me that I was having to her.

"Maeve…Sookie," Eric's voice was stern, "relax," he said to me, "stop casting," he said to her, "there is no danger here." We both looked at him, our identical expressions of disbelief mirroring the other. "Maeve," Eric began again, his voice even harder now, "you've had this reaction before to fae; you should recognize it by now."

Maeve's eyes narrowed at his scolding words, "She's fae? She doesn't feel like a fae. Are you sure…it's more like the…" her mouth dropped open and then snapped shut for a moment, "it was her blood you gave me to put in the ward," she said breathlessly.

Eric didn't respond to her, but now that she was distracted, he reached back and guided me so I was standing at his side, but kept his hand on me to stay my reactions. I opened my mind to him, showing him the disquiet and unease she brought out in me, how just being near her made me feel as though I were in the presence of something that contradicted with me at the most basic level.

He nodded in acknowledgment of my thoughts, "This is a common reaction Sookie, most fae and witches cannot get along, in more than the most elementary of ways." I remembered that Amelia and Claudine distrusted one other at first sight, could this have been the reason? "My understanding is that the magics of witch and fae are so different that they cause actual disharmony between the two beings. The more powerful the witch or fae, the more significant the problem appears to be." He looked at Maeve expectantly for her to confirm his statement.

"It's true, my instincts always tell me I can't trust fairies or fae in general, but it's not usually this strong," she said in a slightly accusatory way. "Generally I can ignore the feeling and do what I need to do, although I've never found a fairy that I actually liked."

I continued to listen to her thoughts and although her mere presence made me uncomfortable, I couldn't pick out any hints to tell me that she shouldn't be trusted. In fact, everything she said was the truth to the best of her knowledge.

I still wasn't satisfied, so I tested her by stirring the power within myself as though I was readying to attack her with fire. She stepped back, but her thoughts were a storm of worry for Eric who was so close to me. I calmed my powers and watched her face relax, she was very tuned into me. It reminded me a little of how Pua had been able to feel my powers and I wondered for the hundredth time if Pua didn't have some witch blood in her after all.

Maeve nodded when I calmed my powers and I felt the presence of her magic shrink a little as well and my body relaxed, allowing me to breath freely again. I blinked a few times and looked up at Eric with a little shrug, the intensity in his eyes decreased slightly, as he sensed that the danger had passed. "I should have warned you, but Maeve has long since become accustomed to being around fairies, so it didn't cross my mind that this would be a problem for the two of you." I nodded and shrugged again, if this was how I would react to witches, then it was a good thing it happened in a safe environment.

At Eric's urging, we carefully stepped closer to Maeve, the feeling was still present, but easier to ignore now that we both weren't flexing our 'magical muscles.'

"Maeve," Eric began, his voice still stern, "You are about to learn things that are top secret to this kingdom. This information may not be discussed with anyone outside of our primary circle. Do you consent to have your glamour reinforced to make sure this information is kept secret?"

Her eyes widened and she looked at me and then back at Eric. "Why would I need to be glamoured again? When I was hired I agreed to allow you to put a fail-safe glamour on my mind to ensure absolute secrecy of specific information. Shouldn't that be enough?" she argued respectfully. There was no fear in her thoughts, just typical concern and curiosity. Even though I was still a little uncomfortable around her, I was pleased to see that she felt free to speak honestly with Eric even though he was now King.

Eric acknowledged her point with a nod, "It might be, but I feel it's prudent to reinforce the glamour now and to make it public knowledge that it was repeated. Just as with the first time, this will not only safeguard our secrets, but also protect you from being a target. There are many who would want to force you to divulge this information."

She didn't look happy about it, and she wasn't. She was also absolutely certain that this was occurring because of me, and she really didn't like that. At the same time, she understood that Eric did a lot of work within the supernatural community and that she couldn't select who he chose to work with, so she would just have to deal with me. She also understood the necessity for ensuring complete secrecy and was relieved to work for someone who gave her the choice to be glamoured or move on to another job. She knew Eric's way wasn't the norm.

"It'll be just like the last time?" she asked.

"Yes," he answered, "but it will encompass more categories of information."

She thought about it for a while and when she couldn't find any harm in it, said, "I agree."

Eric nodded again and put his left hand on my lower back and used his right to gesture to me and then to Maeve. "Sookie," he said, "this is Maeve Green, my resident witch and valued member of my primary team. Maeve, this is Sookie Stackhouse, my wife and future valued member of our primary team."

Maeve was going to greet me, but she stopped in her tracks and looked back and forth from Eric to myself, her mouth slightly ajar. We waited, with Eric pressing his hand to my back for support while she processed what he had just said. Finally she cleared her throat and wet her lips, "May I speak freely Sir?" she asked, her fingers fumbling briefly with the lower hem of her shirt. I noted that she had slipped back into more formal tone for this conversation.

"Certainly Maeve, formalities are not required in front of Sookie, in fact I'm sure she would prefer if all formalities could be avoided," he said with a small smile in my direction. Maeve's eyes widened again as she stared at Eric as though she had never seen him before.

When she spoke, it seemed as though she were forcing out every single word. "I'm sorry to bring this up, but...I was under the impression that your wife, Sookie, had been murdered many years ago."

After she spoke, she prepared herself for a torrent of anger from Eric that she had witnessed him unleash on others who had spoken of me in the past. I felt sick at the images in her mind of his grief turned into anger. When Eric didn't react the way she expected, she relaxed and waited hopefully for an answer.

We had anticipated that most people here would recognize my name and were ready for her questions. We'd have to do this many times until Eric made his formal announcement at the party, so I just needed to get used to it, but I was still uncomfortable.

"Yes, that was my belief as well, until recently," Eric said, squeezing my back again and keeping his answer short.

Maeve looked at me, "But I thought your wife was mostly human with a little bit of fairy blood and," she gestured to me, "she definitely isn't human."

"Sookie was never as human as she appeared to be," Eric added cryptically.

"What kind of fae are you then?" she asked, looking quickly at Eric to make sure she hadn't overstepped her bounds.

"Part fae and part fairy," I answered. Her eyes lit up as she tried and failed to conceal her smile of amusement as she glanced in Eric's direction. I could see the humor an outsider might have at the thought of a vampire marrying a fairy and it made me like her a little bit to know that she saw it too.

"So if you're fairy, why did you have me warding the whole building against other fae? I thought you guys liked to be together," she said astutely. Eric urged us to sit, guiding us to the chairs closest to one another and he sat to the side, clearly communicating that he would simply be there to facilitate, but that the discussion was to occur between the two of us. It took me a minute to adjust to being so close to her. When we were this close it was almost like listening to two contrasting chords being played at the same time, it just grated. Eventually though, we were both able to block it out.

I explained the circumstances of our fairy problems in simple terms, leaving out any unnecessary details and focusing on what we would need from her until we could fix the situation with Niall. Eric looked at me doubtfully when I said this, but I was determined to have cautious hope, so I ignored him.

Maeve was scared of the fairies and actually angry with me for bringing this on Eric, who she thought of as a trailblazer and a really great employer. I didn't blame her for her thoughts in the least, it meant that she was loyal to Eric and had her priorities in the right place, but they made me more determined than ever to prove myself.

Once the foundation was laid, Eric turned the topic to the sites that he and I wanted warded including his residence, mine in Hana, Pam and Miriam's home, a few safe houses and Jason's home. These requests didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary for her and she said she could do it whenever Eric or I could show her the correct homes. Eric asked her about warding vehicles but she said it probably wouldn't work since the ward was tied to the ground on which the building sat, but she agreed to do some research on the subject. She had already strengthened the metal of the cars Eric traveled in, making them more resistant to attacks and she could actually make a car impossible for others to see, but that type of charm only worked for a few hours before it needed to be reset again. I'd been away from witches for a long time, but she sure seemed to know her stuff, it was no wonder that Eric kept her close.

Slowly, the conversation morphed into a discussion about my abilities. I found her easy to talk with now and I was relieved that she was excited rather than disturbed about the scope of my skills. She was imagining how much stronger Eric would be with me at his side but I tried to keep her focused on the challenges we would face and not on the fun of exploring abilities. I didn't want her getting too cocky and careless. She assured me that she was of course worried about the fairies, she had a healthy respect, bordering on awe for their magic and had been very proud that her wards had withstood their attempts to enter the building.

We were distracted from our discussion when Eric's phone buzzed and he looked at me expectantly. "I'll stay here for a while," I said. There were a few things Maeve and I needed to discuss alone.

He stared at me until I opened my mind to him, '_Are you comfortable being alone with her_?' he asked me.

'_Yes, but I'll keep listening,_' I answered.

He nodded to me, _'Nudge my mind when you're ready to join us and I'll come for you,_' he thought.

I smiled at him and sent him an image of me wrapping myself around him and laying a huge kiss on him. His blue eyes burned and a smile cracked through his stoic countenance and then he left the room.

I watched him until the door had swung shut and then I heard Maeve release a little sigh of relief. I totally understood what she meant by that sigh; Eric does that to people. "He is intense, isn't he?" I commiserated with her.

"Yes," she said, "but he's generally predictable and he keeps his word," and her mind flashed through a number of events of feeling safe near Eric but also a few others where his tight control snapped and he either premeditatedly or spontaneously struck out at someone, usually another vampire, but occasionally a human or a Were. I felt Maeve's discomfort and queasiness with these events and I empathized with her.

"He's different with you though," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I knew how I thought he was different, but I wanted to see it through her eyes. Any care he showed for me could be seen as a weakness by other vampires and so I needed to be careful not to encourage or request anything from him that might show weakness. We would save that for when we were alone.

"Normally he's, well…he's guarded and if he shows any emotion, it's anger. I can usually sense the anger seething under his cool façade. He shows his real emotions more with us," she gestured to mean his inner circle, "but he's still very restrained. Not so much tonight though. I can really see how very important you are to him."

I tried to let go of the guilt before it could show on my face, but I wasn't fast enough, "I'm sorry if I upset you," she said quickly.

I held up my hand, "No, I'm fine, I just don't like the idea of him being unhappy," I answered, "and I definitely don't like the idea of anyone viewing him as weak because of me."

"Oh, he won't let anyone know anything he doesn't want them to know, don't let that worry you," she said as though she knew Eric better than I did. I caught myself in the middle of that thought and realized that perhaps she did know Eric well, she'd agreed to allow him to glamour her, that took a lot of trust.

"Maeve,' I asked, "how long have you been working with Eric?" She flashed back to memories of the first time she met Eric, "I did some freelance work for him for a few months with a friend of mine from the coven and then he hired me full time...it must have been six years ago. Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long. We're so busy and the work and travel is always exciting so I haven't had time to get bored of the job yet. I like it," she said with a shrug.

I smiled at her, knowing the thrill involved in supernatural engagements, but I would gladly trade the thrill for a quiet life if Eric could risk giving up his position. I knew he couldn't and so I would stay here by his side. I didn't think Maeve was right about Eric being able to hide how he felt about me though. I knew how vampires thought and the minute they saw that Eric favored me; they would see me as a weak link in his usually impenetrable armor. I would have to show them early on that I was not to be trifled with and that anyone who threatened Eric would have to deal with me too.

"Listen," I began, "I know we had a rough start, but we're figuring out how to handle this and I'm sure it will only get easier. We're going to be working together a lot so it's best that we put our instincts aside and move on." She nodded and I continued, "There's something I wanted to discuss with you now that Eric's not here." She raised an eyebrow at me urging me to continue, and I wondered if she picked that up from Eric.

"I need to be sure that you keep your eye on the ball here Maeve. Right now, Eric's focus is on me and on getting me settled, but I need to know that keeping him safe will be your first priority. Of course, part of that will be keeping me safe too, but please don't lose your focus on everything you've been doing for him all this time just because I'm here. You've clearly been doing a very good job so far. He really relies on you."

She gave a small grimace and I didn't miss the fact that she avoided agreeing to my request, "Why do I get the feeling that he's going to tell me to do the opposite thing?" she asked. I gave a little shrug, knowing that she was probably right.

She sat forward in her chair and clasped her hands together, "Speaking of keeping you guys safe, you really need to be careful about who you give your blood to." I was totally thrown by this turn in topics and I stared at her until she continued, "I'm almost forty and I was trained by witches who were in their seventies when I was with them. The most powerful blood we ever worked with was nothing compared to yours. Vampire blood is very magical, especially blood from a vampire as old as Eric, but still his is almost commonplace compared to yours. I've never seen anything like it."

"What did we do wrong?" I asked eagerly.

"Nothing really, Eric and I have a long history and we trust one another as much as a vampire and a witch can. He gave your blood to me and waited until I'd used it in the ward and then he burned the cup as he should have. The problem is that witches can deceive even the most observant vampires," she said, passing her hand in front of her while chanting quietly and created an invisible barrier in front of her, behind which I couldn't see what her hands were doing. I could, however, see the shimmer of the barrier and I told her so. She gave me a smile of approval, "Okay, but Vampires and Weres can't sense it especially when other magic is being performed." Huh, that's so not good.

"What would a witch want with my blood?" I asked, having some clear ideas of my own but again, I wanted to hear her opinion.

"They could use it to try and weaken, control or modify you in some way. It might even be beneficial to them if they were to drink it like vampire blood. Who knows?" Uh oh, I knew and I remembered all too well how powerful Were-witches were on vampire blood.

"Blood magic is very dangerous, especially with blood like yours. Just a word to the wise," she said carefully.

"Or not so wise," I mumbled, "Thanks. Thanks for telling me and for being honest and for not trying to take advantage of the situation."

She brushed away my thanks with a flick of her hand, "I don't practice black magic, but there are plenty of others out there who do and you need to watch out for them."

I was such an idiot, I'd been so focused on staying with Eric and keeping everyone else safe that I'd neglected to protect myself and thus put everyone at risk…again. I couldn't even imagine how dangerous it would be if a witch were able to figure out a way to control me or take some of my powers. Topec would have flipped out if he'd seen what I'd done and I didn't blame him, especially since I hadn't known Maeve at the time and I didn't listen to her thoughts as she used my blood in her magic.

"Well, you can certainly expect some company the next time you ward with my blood," I said and she smiled at me and nodded.

I glanced up at the clock and saw that it was almost two o'clock; I needed to get going if we were to keep on schedule. "I should join Eric, I'll let him know we're ready," I said somewhat reluctantly as I sought out Eric's mind. I was happy to find him relaxed and interested in what he was doing. He felt me right away and excused himself from his meeting.

"He's coming," I told Maeve, standing up and getting ready to leave.

"That's really cool," she said, standing up too. "I've only seen him do that kind of thing with Pam. Can you only do that with him or with anyone?" she asked, her curiosity obvious in her voice.

"I only do it with a few people, it's an ability that I keep very private, especially the fact that I can hear vampire's minds," I warned her.

"Ugh, I can see why. They wouldn't like that at all," she said with a grimace.

"That's an understatement," I agreed seriously.

"Would you like to practice communicating with me while we wait for Eric?" I asked.

"We'll need to work on it at one point or another." She agreed, looking excited, "Okay, go ahead, but keep the power level down, I can't stand being near you on full tilt."

I smiled, opened a connection between our minds, just so she could hear my directed thoughts, and asked her something I'd been curious about. _'Do you know Amelia Broadway or Octavia Fant?'_ She jumped a little and her mouth dropped open.

"Yes," she said, "I-"

I held up my hand_, 'No, don't say it, think it at me,' _I instructed.

She closed her mouth and got a determined look on her face that made me smile, _'Yes. Amelia is in my coven and Octavia used to be my mentor but she passed away about three years ago.'_

I shouldn't have been shocked, Octavia had been in her sixties or early seventies when I knew her, but I was. It was another reminder of just how much time had passed.

'_Was she a friend of yours?'_ she asked me tentatively, sensing my sorrow.

I answered her honestly, _'She stayed with me for a few months after Katrina, I considered her a friend and I was close friends with Amelia.' _I showed her memories of the three of us eating together in my kitchen in Bon Temps and working in the yard together.

_'I'm sorry,' _she thought sincerely, her thoughts becoming more smoothe and fluent as she got comfortable with this mode of communication.

'_Is Amelia happy?' _I asked hesitantly.

_'Yes,' _she responded and she thought about Amelia with a guy who was undoubtedly Bob and two dark haired girls. I couldn't help but remember Bob as a cat and smile.

_'You knew about that?' _Maeve asked with humor and mortification for Amelia tinting her thoughts.

_'Yes,' _I thought with a wider smile as Eric opened the door._ 'I knew him more as a cat than a human. They lived with me for a while too. He got mad at Amelia one day and threw up all over my grandmother's quilt.' _

Maeve laughed out loud, surprising Eric since we appeared not to be conversing. He caught on quickly and gave both of us an approving look.

I knew what was coming, so I stepped back to allow them some privacy. I disconnected Maeve from my mind but kept watching hers, I was very curious to learn if vampire glamour was similar to what I did.

Eric spoke to her seriously, "Do you consent to having me glamour you to keep all confidential information you receive about this kingdom from being discussed beyond our inner circle?" he asked again. He was ensuring that he didn't lose her trust, smart move.

"I do, but only to that," she said as she looked straight at him. She was brave, but since this wasn't the first time she'd allowed him to glamour her, she must trust this process.

Eric nodded, and was silent for a moment. I felt it the second he connected with her mind. Everything stopped, all her thoughts froze and suddenly I felt new and self-limiting pathways being created in her mind. It wasn't a wall like I would have been tempted to create; it was as though he redirected the flow of knowledge away from anyone but a selected few individuals, stopping it from being able to travel anywhere else. He didn't block or stop the knowledge, he looped it back to where he wanted it to belong.

His glamour process was fascinating to watch, and so fine-tuned compared to what I did. I guess that was one of the many things that a thousand years gave you, time to fine-tune your skills.

He released her and she blinked a few times before breathing out, "Oh, I see. You made it more comprehensive this time. I couldn't tell anyone else about Sookie even if I wanted to," her eyes scanned the room blindly as she felt around in her mind and tested her new limits. I was impressed, most people couldn't feel a glamour, but I remembered that Octavia had been able to stop me from reading her thoughts; maybe she taught Maeve a thing or two about mind control.

"I probably I should have asked you this earlier, but can you undo some parts of the glamour that involve Sookie when you guys go public?" Maeve asked him nervously, Eric nodded and held out his hand for me. I placed my hand in his and I felt as though a piece of our puzzle had been fit together with this first meeting with Maeve. Our relationship probably wouldn't be easy, but this meeting gave me hope for my chances of fitting in here for the long run.

"Goodnight Your Majesty," she said with a nod.

"It was nice to meet you Maeve," I said as Eric led me from the room.

"You too Sookie, see you soon," her words came as the door slid shut behind us and suddenly I was pressed between the hard wall and an equally unyielding man. His hands were running all over my body and I wrapped my arms around his neck, grabbed his hair with my fingers where it was tied back at the base of his neck and pulled his mouth down to meet mine. He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his hips and laughed out loud when he burrowed his face in my cleavage.

He groaned in frustration and pulled me tighter to him and I felt him take a deep breath as he trailed his nose from my chest to my neck and finally my ear. "Release your essence just a little, I want to smell you," he whispered huskily in my ear right before he went to work nibbling and licking at the side of my neck.

I shook my head, "No. You can wait a few more minutes, greedy vampire," I said with a smile that changed into a yelp of glorious shock when he slid his fingers into me, having pushed my panties aside.

My arms and legs around him and my back on the wall held me upright as he worked me with one hand and used his other to relentlessly tease my nipples under my shirt and bra. I came with a scream that echoed within the small enclosure between the two secure doors. While I was recovering, he cleaned his fingers with his tongue, groaning in his indulgence.

"Aren't they going to smell that?" I asked gesturing to his fingers.

"No, he said with his eyes halfway closed, "but I can taste you even if I can't smell you."

I let go of him, unfastened his pants and then turned us around so he was now leaning against the wall. I cupped him and rubbed up and down his length with my other hand before greedily taking him into my mouth. I didn't play any games this time as I sucked and licked him, all the while running my free hand up and down his inner legs and along his balls and butt cheeks. His fingers threaded into my hair, just touching, not guiding me as I led him to completion.

He pulled me up, and kissed me deeply, enjoying taste of himself in my mouth and said, "I'm cancelling the meeting with the guards and rescheduling it for tomorrow night. We still have four more nights before I have any official duties to perform," his voice was deliciously husky and his words were so very tempting, but we needed to keep on track.

"No," I said and stepped away a little. "We have too much to do in a short period of time and if the small glimpse I got of you doing semi-official things is the norm, then I want as much of this squared away before the real shit hits the fan."

"There she is," he said with a smile, "I knew my worrier would return to me sooner or later." He kissed me playfully, letting me know that he was teasing me and reached down to pull up his pants. I brushed out my skirt and gasped, "Eric, there's a stake in here and daggers," looking at him in horror.

"All well secured," he answered with a sly smile, "Do you not think that we would thoroughly test your clothing, not only for battle readiness but also for 'fuckability' as Pam calls it. I would never agree to a design that had you hesitant to allow me to ravish you whenever I wanted."

I laughed, "I knew I could always count you to keep your eye on the really important details," I teased.

"This is important," he said tying his hair again at the nape of his neck.

"Don't I know it," I answered and pulled him in for a quick kiss.

He smiled at me and held out his hand again, "Ready to meet the Queen?" he asked causing me to laugh out loud again.

"Well this meeting could hardly be more uncomfortable than when I first met her," I said, recalling my disastrous attempt to teleport directly to Eric upon my return from Britlin.

"True," he agreed with a frown.

He led me to the elevator and gestured to the hand pad on the security panel, "You do it." I placed my hand on the panel as he instructed while he entered a long code into his phone. The system buzzed and then beeped and he instructed me to place my hand in the bucket and I pressed five buttons in succession following the pattern of ring, index, pinkie, middle, ring that he provided to me. The door slid open and we entered his office and then continued to the elevator that would take us back to his private rooms. I activated the security panel in here too with a different code, making sure to memorize each code he provided me.

"Why do you meet with Freyda in your private rooms?" I asked, "I figured only Pam and you would have access to those spaces."

Eric pushed the middle button and the elevator began to move up, "This is the first time I have officially met her here. The night you returned, Pam had brought her in to try and talk me out of my anger. I'd been taking my frustration about your continued absence out on everyone near me and with the summit and the trial looming, it was imperative that I 'get my head out of my ass' as you said earlier."

I chuckled at his phrasing, I'd never heard him use those exact words before. "Tonight," he continued, "we are meeting in my rooms to see if you can release your essence in there. The only vampires in the building right now are Pam, myself, Freyda who has already proven she can resist your scent and two of my guards who will be exposed to your scent tonight anyway. Pam is waiting outside the door and will tell me if any of your scent is noticeable when you are inside. At the completion of the test with Freyda, I will go to meet with the guards on my own first to see how much your scent lingers on me and then we will determine what to do next from their response."

"Eric," I complained, but he cut me off.

"I have agreed to try things your way, but only if it is safe. Surely you are not so..." he began through clenched teeth, but it was my turn to cut in.

"No, Eric, I'm not so stubborn or foolish as to disregard my own safety, please don't expect that from me. Of course we'll wait to see if it's safe to move forward with things. I was concerned that you were ignoring what I want to achieve at the meeting with the guards."

He gave me a dark look, "I have not forgotten," he said quietly.

I reached out for his hand again and gave his a quick squeeze before changing the topic, "You really trust Freyda," I said, trying to keep the question out of my voice.

He nodded, "More so than most other vampires I did not make. She has proven herself trustworthy time and again over hundreds of years. However, that trust pertains only to Freyda and myself. I do not trust her with you yet for many reasons." Smart man.

The elevator door slid open and we were met once again with another door only four feet in front of us. We stepped forward and the elevator door closed, locking us between the two doors. Eric instructed me to activate the security panel and keypad and when I did so, the door slid open right into his quarters. The Queen was sitting in Eric's private office on a soft deep green chair. She stood when we entered and gave me a pleasant smile, and if I hadn't been listening, I would never have caught onto the fact that she was threatened by me.

The flash I got of her concerns confirmed that she was loyal to Eric and that she trusted him. The reason I threatened her was that I was a new and unknown variable in their relationship. Eric had also already explained my problems with the fairies and she was furious at the thought of Eric, and herself by extension, having more enemies, and such powerful ones at that.

I didn't blame her for her concerns, I'd have the same ones about anyone entering our lives, and so I smiled back at her and nodded my head deeply to her. "Your Majesty," I said, erring on the side of caution as to what our relationship would entail. She seemed to approve of my actions.

Moments after Eric introduced us she began her gentle prodding, "Sookie," she said smiling sweetly again, "Eric is ecstatic to have you back with him. He's been eagerly awaiting your return." The translation I heard in her mind went more like this; _'Be careful. You're already a weakness for him, causing him to act irrationally and distracting him from his duties to Louisiana and Oklahoma_.'

"As am I, we have a lot to do to ready ourselves for the future," I responded. Translation, and this I placed right in her mind, _'Do you think I don't know the risk I'm putting him in? I'll do everything in my power to make sure my problems don't affect him or you_.'

She handled the intrusion into her mind well, having already been told by Eric about my more advanced telepathic abilities. We'd decided that we had to be honest with her about my telepathy. It would be disastrous to their alliance if she were to find out later that Eric had kept such a big secret from her. We felt that it was relatively safe to tell her since to weaken Eric was to weaken herself. After a few strained moments, she nodded slightly to me in acknowledgment.

"I have to say that I was very surprised when Eric told me he was in love with a human, or mostly human, but this," she gestured at me, "I can understand. You are quite intriguing." I simply gave her a small tilt of my head to acknowledge her words, not responding to her thoughts about how she and Eric could benefit from my abilities. The primary reason I didn't comment about her thoughts was that she wasn't really contemplating using me in an offensive way; she simply wanted to make use of everything I had to offer since I was now part of the alliance as Eric's wife.

Eric was looking back and forth between the two of us and I was irritated to see amusement in his eyes. I frowned at him, but Freyda smiled and relaxed a bit. "Eric also tells me that I am to be part of a test of sorts," she said, cutting to the chase. I looked up at Eric and he nodded but neither Freyda or I missed that he stepped so that he was standing almost in front of me, but not quite. He gestured for me to go ahead and I relaxed the mechanisms in the glands throughout my body that created my essence and allowed them to produce and release my scent again.

The fairies use another procedure, which actually makes those around them to be unable to smell their essence even though it's still being produced and released. The problem with this procedure is that the scent clings to anyone in the proximity and it can be smelled once the fairy leaves or stops suppressing the scent.

The strategy I used was very similar to shifting since I actually alter my cells, and so I found this the easier way to go. I watched Freyda carefully as she took in a deep breath and her eyes dilated and fixed on me. A second later, her fangs ran out. She stayed solidly in her posture, only her chest moving as she breathed in my scent. After about three minutes, her eyes slowly returned to their bright green and she smiled. "There," she said, "that wasn't so hard." I noticed that her fangs were still out and I could hear the continued struggle she was having.

Eric could sense her discomfort too so he made sure that he was the first to move, stopping me where I stood with a small gesture of his hand splaying at his side. He walked toward her, guiding her to the chair she had been sitting in before. Only when she was sitting did he look at me and encourage me to take a seat on the opposite side of the room from her while he sat next to her, ever alert.

"You don't need to handle me, Eric. I won't hurt her," she said, slightly insulted after her good showing of restraint.

Eric smiled, "It's not her I'm worried about getting hurt," he said slyly. Freyda frowned, so Eric continued, "Sookie is very good at protecting herself as I learned the hard way." Freyda looked at me appraisingly and a tiny bit of her concern resolved. Not all of it, but a tiny piece. I would have to prove myself over time, all I could ask is that the people in his life give me the chance to show them what I could do.

Our somewhat stilted meeting was brief, but I got the distinct impression that I would grow to like her very much. Her mind kept wandering to her lover, a vampire named Karl who she was eager to return to. I felt better about her, knowing that she loved someone deeply too. Before long, she excused herself, saying that she needed to get on her way to be home in Oklahoma before sunrise.

After she left, Pam came in and closed her eyes while taking a few deep breaths before reporting that she hadn't been able to get any trace of my scent through the closed doors and only a tiny bit from Freyda since I hadn't touched her.

Upon hearing this, Eric grinned widely and scooped me up into a huge hug and began to accost me with his mouth, making sure to rub his face between my breasts and up the side of my neck. Just when I was ready to throw Pam back out the door, he pulled away with a growl and I could see from his mouth and his pants that he was as irritated by our busy schedule as I was.

"All in the name of science," I said and gave him one more kiss before swatting his bottom and giving him a nudge toward the elevator.

"The faster we get this done, the longer we have until sunrise," I reminded him, and with that, he walked away to begin the next phase of our evening.

o-o-o

A/N Sorry to stop it there, but I had to cut it somewhere, this chapter wanted to be much longer. A shout out to Racecz5. I channeled her review from chapter 31 into my character Maeve. Thanks!


	35. Chapter 35

A/N: Thanks again to Charhamblin my beta and for everyone who reviewed and added to their favorite lists. Thanks also to my guest reviewer (person without a FF account) who left my first anonymous review. Yay! I love hearing from you!

000000

Chapter 35  
>Instinctual Responses<p>

"You guys are already making me sick," Pam complained, but she had satisfied smile on her face so I ignored her. "Eric take a minute for a breath of fresh air before you go up there, they don't need to see you high on Sookie."

Eric winked at us, turned and entered the elevator, "Wait Eric," I yelped just before the door closed. He put his hand in the pathway of the door and it slid open again.

I rushed over, stood on my toes and gave him one more kiss on his lips. I know it wasn't fair for me to do that, but this was really important to me. I lowered myself so I was flat on my feet, but kept my hand on his cheek. "Please?" I asked and watched with regret as the look of happiness slid off his face and was replaced by a scowl.

He nodded stiffly and then said, "Eat," pointing to a small table on the far side of the room, which held a covered dish and a glass of milk. I eagerly agreed and he allowed the door to slide closed, his glare fading slightly into a more resigned expression.

I waited until the door was completely shut to let my own face break out into a wide grin of excitement and anticipation. "Well that got rid of his high. What was that all about?" Pam asked curiously, sitting down in Eric's empty chair and gracefully crossing her legs at the ankle. She looked like an attendee at a ladies luncheon in her knee length brown and orange plaid skirt, cream-colored angora sweater and brown penny loafers.

I grabbed the tray of food and placed it on the coffee table and groaned with delight when I pulled off the cover and was hit by the delicious smell of meat lasagna. I shook out the rolled cloth napkin, and slid down to sit on the floor by the coffee table. I didn't want to sit alone; I'd missed Pam's company.

I moaned again as I took my first bite and smiled gleefully when I heard Pam laugh at me. I didn't care how I sounded or looked. I'd been living on frozen fish for the last week and a half and I was a meat and potatoes kind of woman. This lasagna was simply fantastic. I ate half of my meal in silence before taking a break to drink some real milk and answer Pam's question.

I took my time, explaining between bites what I expected from the remainder of the evening, and tried to hide my amusement as I watched Pam's eyes widen and her lips turn down into a pout. Before I was done talking, Pam pulled out her phone and sent a text, mumbling, "I can't believe he didn't tell me about this," under her breath. Within a few seconds her pout vanished as she jumped up, smiling triumphantly, "I can come and watch, I just have to get something first. He's ready for you so you should go up now," she said, gesturing to the elevator.

"Hang on a minute Pam, do you know of any workout clothes around here that might fit me?" I asked as she walked to the door. She turned around and eyed me impatiently; "Miriam and I left a variety of workout clothes in your closet. Eric hasn't given you a tour yet?"

I shook my head, "No, we haven't had time." She started to walk back toward me, but I stopped her, "Just think about an outfit you put in there so I can see it in your thoughts."

She didn't enjoy having me in her mind, but thought about a closet in the next room, not Eric's but one obviously dedicated solely to my clothing. Inside the closet, on the bottom left shelf was a turquoise sports bra and light grey yoga shorts with turquoise piping down the side. It was cute, but not appropriate for this situation, "What about something a little more conservative?" I prompted. She rolled her eyes and the images in her mind were replaced by those of a black pair of yoga shorts and a fitted racerback tank with a supportive built-in bra and patterned in gray paisley graphics. These items were both on the same shelf as the previous outfit. "Perfect," I said, "What about socks, shoes and a hairband?" Again she thought about where I could find the items I needed.

"Thanks," I said as I gave one last forlorn glance at my unfinished meal and turned to enter the elevator.

"Aren't you going to get changed?" Pam asked and I smiled at the back of the elevator.

"Not now, I just wanted to know where they were," I said, and with that, I turned around and grinned wickedly at her. As the door slid shut, I saw her speed out of the room on her way to get whatever she needed before joining us.

The door of the elevator slid open and I stepped into a huge open area that was clearly the training center for the guards. I only had a second to look around, but that was all I needed to determine that I was in workout heaven. The space, which took up most of this floor of the almost block-sized building, sported an unbelievably large wrestling mat in the center and was ringed by punching bags, weights, cardio machines, stretching mats, a Pilates studio and what looked like a small medical ward. I was eager to take a better look around, but before I could take a step, my view was blocked by Eric's large back.

I started to peek around him to see the two vampires and Were he was protecting me from as they adjusted to my scent, but I gasped as I was bowled over by a wave of unexpected fury from both vampires. Eric tensed and bent slightly into a crouch, ready to attack. At that moment, I was able to see straight into a blond vampire's green eyes and saw the bloodlust that undoubtedly preceded the violence of extreme vampiric anger. I didn't hesitate this time, I threw one arm around Eric's waist from behind and teleported us back to his quarters.

Eric flipped around, breaking my grasp, and wound his fingers around my arms, "What? What happened? Why are we here Sookie?" I was still on high alert, listening for dangers, for minds closing in on us, so I was slow to answer. Eric was not in the mood to tolerate delays; he shook me gently, his fangs running out even further than they were as he sensed my tension.

I shook my head, trying to break out of my hyperaroused state and took a deep breath. "They recognized my scent. You've had them searching for my scent for years," I said and I hated the sound of anxiety in my voice. I took a deep breath to center myself, and began again, calmer this time, "They think I'm an imposter…that I've presented myself to you as your lost wife to use or hurt you in some way." Eric was staring at me, his eyes fixed on mine, but his mind was elsewhere, "Eric, they were going into a rage, they wouldn't have listened to reason. I had to get out of there," I said adamantly.

"Where are they now?" he asked. I'd been following their every move, so I knew exactly where they were.

"The vampires are in the elevator coming down here. They're calling Pam now. The Were…by the way, she's not just a Were…is still upstairs, she's angry with me for other reasons, but doesn't understand what just happened.

"Stay here," Eric demanded, "I will handle this," and he went to the door that exited to the horizontally moving elevator that led to the offices beyond. "Keep connected to my mind, you may need to share some memories with them to prove your identity." I agreed and opened a two-way pathway between our minds even though my adrenaline was fading and emotions that I hated for him to see were rising up in me.

Eric stilled as he felt my emotions and he returned to me and held me in his arms, soothing me. "These are my two most trusted allies besides Pam, they will listen," he said into my hair. Because our minds were now connected, he could see that their anger and hatred had been very much like his own reaction when he first scented me in Hana. He held me tighter and I gratefully accepted the comfort.

"How many other vampires did you have looking for me?" I asked, worried that I would face this reaction again and again.

He didn't respond for a moment, but then said, "All of my Sheriffs, along with Heidi, Stan, Russell and Bart. Freyda too, but she knew the rest of the story before meeting you. I called them off the hunt once I learned you were alive and that the blood belonged to you, but vampires do not forget a scent."

I closed my eyes and burrowed my face against his chest. He pulled me away from him and tilted my chin up; I opened my eyes before he could ask. "I will take care of it," he said firmly. "This is why we are going about your reintroduction slowly…to identify the pitfalls in a safe environment." I nodded, but the reality of my situation hit me for the first time.

I'd been feeling capable, powerful and hopeful, even to the point of ignoring Eric's warnings and risking our safety to make a good first impression and, I can admit, to show off a little. I let my ego get in the way and look where it got me.

"No, Sookie," he said with a slight growl in his voice, his eyes flashing, "don't doubt yourself, you were right in your desires. You must present your strengths, garner their respect, and you will still do that tonight. James and Will were just doing what I'd asked of them in trying to find you and in protecting me. They will do as I ask again, once I explain the situation more fully."

"You're king, shouldn't they just do what you say anyway?" I asked, realizing what a hypocrite I was since I didn't do what he wanted all the time either.

Eric narrowed his eyes at me and frowned slightly, "Not my inner circle. I ask them to speak freely about important topics and encourage them to question my plans if they have other suggestions. They know better than to do so in public, but I would be weaker without their experience and expertise. You will learn to trust them too Sookie, as they will learn to trust you. Just give them time."

I sighed in response as he gave me one more kiss on the forehead and left the room. I listened to him as he passed through the thick wall in the elevator and confronted his guards. They followed him to another elevator and were met by Pam and then all four of them returned to the training floor together.

Eric called upon me twice and I offered up some of my less personal memories of my last few days in Bon Temps and also of our disastrous reunion in Hana. Eventually, with Eric, Pam and I working in concert, they finally believed that I was who I claimed to be.

A few minutes later, Eric gave me the all clear to make a second attempt at our meeting. Sadly, a lot of the joy I had originally felt about having the chance to prove myself had faded and my task had taken on a grimmer flavor. This experience was an acute reminder that I wasn't in Britlin anymore surrounded by a multitude of variously talented opponents ready to spar with me at any given moment, but absolutely devoted to my protection at the same time. I was now facing lethal opponents who, just fifteen minutes ago, desperately wanted to kill me.

Once again the elevator doors opened and I found myself facing Eric's back, but this time I sensed anticipation and curiosity rather than fury. It didn't take long for them to adjust to my scent, but Eric waited a few seconds longer than necessary before stepping aside and giving me my first real view of his guards. I discretely refused to take his hand when he offered it to me, deciding rather to stand strong and independent.

"Sookie, these are my primary guards and trusted advisors," Eric said, continuing the movement of his hand to gesture to a handsome dark-haired vampire who must have been about twenty or so years old when he was made. He was about six feet tall, had a thin moustache and intelligent dark eyes. "This is James Chrichton, my younger brother by Appius."

I know my eyes widened at that news, but I tried to keep my face passive otherwise. I'd never asked if Appius had made any others, but Eric had said that his maker was drawn to unique and talented men, or boys in the case of Alexei. For all I knew, Eric could have dozens of 'brothers' out there made at different points in the elder vampire's long life. I found myself extremely curious as to what made James unique enough to draw Appius' attention.

James stepped forward and bowed to me with a flourish that made me smile, "Please accept my apologies for our boorish behavior. It is a pleasure to finally meet my brother's long-lamented wife," he said with a soft Scottish accent, "I now see why he pined for you so deeply." Okay now that was going way over the top, clearly James Chrichton was a skilled ladies man.

I was unable to stop the blush I could feel blooming on my cheeks, "It's nice to meet you James," I said, smiling at him.

"This," Eric said, raising an eyebrow at James' behavior and moving me past him to the slightly larger blond haired, green eyed vampire next to him, "is Vilhelm or Will, as he prefers to be called today, Halvorsen." Will simply nodded at me with a flat expression that I recognized as the face I saw on Eric when he was unwilling to share his feelings or opinions about something. I nodded back, keeping my expression blank as well, and then I turned away to look at the third and loudest member of the guard.

"This is Sheila Fieldstone, a Were from Alcide Herveau's pack in Shreveport." I gasped and smiled when I heard that. My relationship with Alcide had degraded during the last year or so of my life in Louisiana, but I still remembered our original friendship fondly.

"Hi Sheila. How's Alcide doing?" I asked, partly to learn more about him, but my real motivation was to keep her from yelling at me, as she so badly wanted to do.

Her ridiculously loud broadcasting had drowned out James and Will's thoughts from the moment the door opened and almost had me closing my shields to shut her out. Unfortunately that wasn't a pleasure I could have right now, I needed to listen as much as I could to keep on top of everything. She was perseverating on the turn that things had taken for Eric and thus for her in the last few weeks. She had found a way to blame me for everything negative that had happened, from the trial at the summit, to being out of touch with Eric for an unprecedented period of time over the last week. She wasn't selfish or a coward, or thankfully in love with Eric, she just liked to have control of anything that could affect her or her performance in her job.

She considered me an unknown, a loose cannon and was sure that without her up-close and personal supervision, I would bring about Eric's downfall. She had decided that she didn't and wouldn't trust me. I took a slow, deep breath and looked at Eric who was hearing her thoughts through my mind. He had to work hard to keep a straight face and I was appalled to hear that he actually enjoyed Sheila's attitude. Well I sure didn't enjoy it. Couldn't she think of something a little more original? The party line she was spouting was getting really old.

Welcome to the fucking party Sheila, get in line behind everyone else who wishes I hadn't returned.

"She doesn't look so tough," Sheila said to Eric, ignoring my question about Alcide. He looked at me and his smile broke through, he was really amused, the jerk. To show him just how not funny I found this situation, I closed my mind to him and earned the expected deep scowl in return.

Sheila's aggression was obviously beginning to rub off on me and I was really looking forward to this after a stressful night of being on parade. I nodded to Eric who had straightened his face before speaking to his guards.

"Sookie and I both believe," I gave him a little smile when he said this, "that it's important for you to fully understand her capabilities, so we've decided to give you a chance to test her. Your goal," he looked at me too, "is to try and pin one another down. Guards versus Sookie. No weapons are allowed today, but prepare for that tomorrow. Tonight will be about trying to catch up to and contain her.

"Right now, Sookie is in a moderately weakened state. Consider how you would feel having been exposed to silver and given only half a bottle of Red Stuff a day for a week and a half," he said to James and Will, "and having slept only one hour a night and taken in only a few bites of food each day for that length of time," he said to Sheila. "You would be able to function, but at a vastly decreased capacity from your top level of performance. So this will be your best chance to beat her. She will be stronger and faster tomorrow after she has had a chance to recharge." Eric's eyes were bright, and although he was still nervous about how I would fare against his guards, he was even more excited to see me in action.

As for me, I wasn't remotely nervous anymore. Not at all, my heart was thumping with anticipation, readying my body for the coming mock battle. My job was to try and stay standing and also to take each of them down, so I checked my powers one final time. I was running low that's for sure, but I would be able to jump and shift at least a few times before I fatigued and my reactions became more sluggish. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to pull more energy from the environment around me so I would have to use what I did have wisely, at least most of the time.

The three guards stared at Eric as though he'd lost his mind, but it was James who spoke up, "You mean for one of us to face her at a time, right?"

Eric shook his head, "No, three on one would be the more realistic scenario. If someone were to attack Sookie bodily, they would not do so alone, unless they were a complete fool of course."

Will was still stoic and I caught a few thoughts that told me that he'd fought fairies before and he didn't underestimate what my abilities might be although, at my request, Eric hadn't filled them in on my specific skills. Sheila didn't say anything more, but was bouncing on her feet unconsciously, eager to get moving. In that action, I could see one of the things Eric enjoyed about her and I found myself both liking and hating her at the same time.

Eric positioned us with me in the center of the room on the wrestling mat and each of the guards in a different corner. Eric would be observing from above. He flew up above me and said loudly, "Do not draw her blood, but if they do Sookie, defend yourself, just try to not to kill them." I could hear the smile in his voice as he said that.

I heard Sheila mumble something about a little girl in a skirt getting her ass kicked and I had to laugh at her over-the-top approach. Embracing the arrogant attitude that Sheila was pounding me with, I channeled my cousin Claudine. In the blink of an eye, I was wearing the workout clothes Pam had visualized for me and my hair was neatly secured in a ponytail high on the back of my head.

I turned to my friend Pam and blew her a saucy kiss meant to add to the showy nature of my apparel change and was rewarded when she winked and allowed her fangs to run out a little.

Okay, I know I was showing off, but that's what this exercise was for. I was going to enter into this relationship with these three guards with my boots firmly on and all 'guns' blazing, nothing less. This was my one chance to wow them before they made their minds up about me.

This ability to manipulate clothing was a skill that only Clovache had the tolerance to work with me on developing since it really is a superfluous fairy skill that the Britlingens couldn't do and that most of them perceived as a waste of valuable energy. Clovache had coined it the 'quick strip,' since she thought its most useful application would be in removing one's clothes all together, especially when with a lover. She was always a pragmatist, but she was right and if I didn't love the feeling of Eric taking or ripping off my clothes so much, I would use it all the time with him. Anyway, I'd envied this skill ever since I saw Claudine change outfits in Merlotte's during the time of the witch war.

I heard Eric clear his throat unnecessarily, bringing me back to the moment at hand. I nodded without looking up at him and tensed slightly as I scanned around the room for my opponents.

"Begin," Eric's voice rang through the room.

My eyes saw only streaks of movement from the vampires, but I followed each mind and immediately teleported to the empty corner of the room and landed crouched behind a weight machine as James ploughed through the now empty space that I had just been occupying. Sheila was closest to me now and she ran toward me, moving in a slinking pattern that made it look like her joints were hypermobile. As she jumped over an elliptical, I ran from behind the machine and leapt over three more obstacles, heading for the open space of the stretching area.

The minute my feet touched the mat as I cleared the last machine, James slammed into me. Damn he was fast. We flew through the air and I felt him place his hand under my head to protect me from the impact with the floor. He was a true gentleman…what a pity that I wasn't a well-behaved lady.

I smiled up at him sweetly and just before we hit the ground I gently pushed my power through the one hand that was placed on his chest, as I had done with Eric. He flew off me with a roar of pain and I landed on the ground, rolling myself up onto my feet and then jumped directly on top of him so that I was straddling his waist. He smiled through his pain and his dark brown eyes twinkled with mirth. I could see why Appius had been drawn to both James and Eric, they had a similar sense of humor. Too bad Appius had been such a jerk.

"Gotcha," I said, smiling back at him, and then I transformed into a hawk and flew up into the air.

I needed a minute to see where the others were before reengaging. Pam had left her perch along the side of the room and was in the process of helping James as he moved out of the way. She opened a bottle of TrueBlood she had brought up for him and they both sat and watched me as I circled around the ceiling studying my two remaining opponents.

Focusing on Will, I swooped down toward him and was shocked when he disappeared. Wait, no he hadn't disappeared, he'd just managed to conceal himself from my sight because I could still sense his mind right where it should be. Wow, that was a terrifyingly cool talent for a vampire to have.

I changed directions and landed closer to Sheila, back in my regular form and at a crouch, ready for action. I tracked Will, but he was staying back, waiting to attack when I was distracted by Sheila. They made a good team and I could see plainly that they had done this many times before. Shelia made a lot of noise as she jumped onto the machines and weight racks and then ran slightly to my right to drive me to the left where Will was skulking.

Instead of allowing myself to be herded, I held my ground, defended myself from Sheila's flying roundhouse kick and countered with sweep of her standing leg and a chop to the side of her neck. She avoided my foot with a jump but the blade of my hand hit her side causing her to stumble back with a gasp. Taking advantage of her momentary weakness, I struck her in the stomach with my foot and was thrown off balance when her hands wrapped around my ankle and she tossed me to the ground with impressive force. We both quickly gained our feet and I lost my focus on her for a second while I checked on Will. He was only a few feet away, right behind me now. I bared my teeth as I deliberately allowed Sheila's kick to hit me straight in the stomach, throwing me right into Will and I took him down in the same way I had managed James, minus the niceties.

I heard James whoop with glee as he watched his partner face the same fate that he had. Now it was just Sheila and I. She was well aware that I'd given her that last hit and her anger was warring with her excitement at having the chance to face me alone. She circled me with her low slinking motions but I stayed put, simply turning so I could keep my eyes on her.

It had to be Sheila and I facing one another at the end, this was the only way I could hope to get the three of them pinned. The vampires I could take down easily, knowing they would heal quickly, but Sheila, I would have to handle more gently in a traditional fight. She was quicker and more agile than many of the Weres I had fought before, reinforcing my belief that she wasn't just a 'Were' with a capital 'W' as Eric had told me, but some other form of shifter or something else along that line.

Finally she lunged at me and instead of teleporting, I stayed put, wanting this to be an even fight. I stepped to the side, grabbed her by her shirt and her shoulder and used her momentum to throw her past me. I ran to the other end of the room, gleeful as I vaulted over and wound between equipment, always keeping tabs on her, making sure she was no closer than a few feet behind.

When she got too close, I sprung into the air where I grabbed onto an edge high up on the wall that stuck out, and pulled myself up onto it. From here, I had an excellent vantage point to see exactly what Sheila was doing and which pathway she was liable to take in avoiding my next attack. This must be exactly what they used it for.

I didn't stay on the ledge more than a few seconds; I was having too much fun. I dove off the edge, as I shifted into a hawk again. Unfortunately my body chose that particular moment to run low on energy and I flailed in midair before I finally completed the change and landed gratefully on the ground at the far end of the gym. I only had enough time to change back and regret being so cocky before Sheila came at me with a flying kick. I deflected her with a high sweep of my leg that I followed with a kick of my own, aimed at her head. She ducked and rammed me with her shoulder and I sunk low into a crouch and tossed her over me, but by the time I turned around, she had already aimed at me with another kick to my head. I tried to teleport away, but my energy was at an all time low and the kick struck home, sending me tumbling across the room.

I jumped up, determined to avoid being pinned by her, but Eric's voice rang out in the room. "Stop!" Suddenly I was in his arms and we were soaring into the air with both James and Will now standing right where I had been, fangs down and eyes fixed on me. Eric leaned in and licked the corner of my mouth, drawing attention to the fact that I was bleeding.

Shit.

I managed to control my baser instincts that were so strong at the moment to allow him to tend to my small wound in the form of sweet kisses and licks until I felt it heal. I looked down after a minute and was happy to see that both James and Will had managed to reign themselves in some and were back against the wall with Pam. Good. Now Sheila and I could continue our battle. So I was startled when Eric's strained voice rang out again, "We will meet back here tomorrow at nine o'clock."

I squirmed in his arms, wanting to get down and continue the fight, my body was roiling with adrenaline, my muscles twitching and heart pounding; I wanted more. I didn't want to stop. One quick glance at the look in Eric's glazed eyes told me that inaction was the last thing on his mind at the moment. The room cleared quickly and Eric lowered us onto the wrestling mat, as a different set of elevator doors that I hadn't even known were there slid shut.

I was naked before my back hit the mat and Eric was inside me a second after that. He was straining to hold back his bloodlust and passion from the near violence he has been observing, but I could feel it pulsing through his system and I encouraged him to release his hold on his control and join me in my battle lust. I nipped him hard on his neck and ran my fingernails up his back, barely avoiding drawing his blood and he roared out a yell mixed with a feral growl.

He slammed into me, wrapping his arms under my back and his hands around my shoulders to keep me from sliding up from the force of his thrusts. He was wild, animalistic and as near rabid as he had ever been with me. I loved it and egged him on dangerously, wrapping my legs around his hips and encouraging his onslaught.

I wanted to feed the rabid beast within both of us in every way possible but even in my own crazed state, I knew that I would not fare well if he bit me. I rolled us over, held his hands down on the mat and then slid up his body and pinned his arms down under my knees. I was able to position my legs so that he couldn't reach any of me with his mouth. He growled and snapped at me with his teeth, but I could see a tiny bit of his sanity returning with this unorthodox break in the action. I'd be taking care of that, I wanted to drive him insane.

I momentarily transformed the nail of my right index finger into a claw and made a deep two-inch scratch in my upper chest. Whatever sanity Eric had found was gone in an instant, but somehow he managed not to throw me off him, instead he continued to permit me to restrain him with my knees.

I stayed upright, allowing the blood from my cut to run down my chest and onto my stomach and I didn't release him until I felt the wound heal completely. The moment I shifted off his arms, Eric grabbed me and flipped us over so I was underneath him and he was inside me once more. He placed one arm under me, arching my back so my chest was raised and more accessible to him and wound his other hand into my hair, pulling my head back, trapping me in his grasp.

An unbelievable orgasm ripped through me as he pounded into me and licked me clean while growling incoherently and then he followed me off the cliff, gathering me to him and holding me so tightly, I felt as though I was being embraced by an unrelenting metal sculpture.

Finally he relaxed, only now realizing how he was holding me. He jerked and released his grasp, taking his weight off me and onto his own arms. His hands cupped my head and he ran his thumbs over my cheeks. He started to say something a few times but only ended up opening his mouth and then closing it again. I loved being able to render him speechless.

I decided to play with him a bit, to lighten the intensity of the atmosphere. I forced my face into an expression of extreme concern, "I'm sorry Eric. I shouldn't have done that. Look what I've done to you. I know you hate being out of control like that. I promise, I won't…" but that's all I got out before he laughed softly and lowered his forehead to mine, shaking his head. I sighed as errant strands of his hair tickled my neck and the side of my face.

"You think you're funny my sera fae, but you can weave your enchanted web for me anytime you want. You are magnificent," he said in a nearly silent whisper.

We relaxed for a few more minutes and then Eric swept me up in his arms and carried me to the elevator. "Wait," I laughed, "we left our clothes and I really don't feel like running into Will on the elevator like this," I gestured to my naked body with humor in my voice.

Eric grunted, dismissing my concerns, "Only you, Pam and I have access to this elevator, the others use the main elevator," he said jerking his head to the one I saw the others exiting through. "As to your other concern, this whole area is cleaned every day and I will have it aired-out to remove the smell of your blood before I allow any vampires in here."

I squirmed again, trying to get out of his arms, "I still don't want the cleaning staff to have to pick up my shredded clothes," I complained. Eric ignored me, activated the elevator and stepped inside. I glared at him as the door slid shut behind us and because the process took longer than usual, I had the pleasure of hearing him bellow my name as I teleported back into the gym to gather our clothes and wipe up a drop of my blood from the mat.

Although I was moving slowly, I still beat Eric back to his bedroom and I even had a chance to throw out the clothes and climb into bed before he entered the room. "Stubborn woman," he grumbled as he stalked over to the bed and pulled the sheets back from me.

"Hey!" I yelled, reaching vainly for the covers.

"We have only fifty minutes before dawn and you cannot fall asleep here," he decreed, and I had to smile. Here he was standing naked before me, blood smeared on his chest and holding a sheet in his left hand. His long hair was mussed from our more violent than normal loving and none of that impacted the power of his message. He was glorious, completely uninhibited and self–assured.

"I love you Eric," I said with a smile as I crawled across the bed and knelt at the edge with my arms held out to him.

He dropped the sheet and wrapped his arms around me, running his fingers through the ends of my hair. "So," I said with a smile, "what do you suggest we do for the next forty-eight minutes?"

He gave my hair a light tug and I prepared for him to toss me to the bed, but he said, "I thought you might want a tour."

I pulled away from him to see if he was joking and I was disappointed to find that he was absolutely serious. He pulled me off the bed and told me what had really been on his mind. "Sookie," He said seriously, "I want you to wait to leave here until sunrise in Hawaii."

While I gathered my thoughts, I reached behind his neck and untied the leather thong that still held some of his hair back from his face and ran my fingers through the soft strands until they fell onto his shoulders and down his back. "That wouldn't give me enough time Eric. I need to be back here at sunset to get in a full night. If I waited for sunrise, I'd only have about six hours in Hana before I needed to come back," I said gently, unwilling to get into an argument about this.

"If I were Niall," Eric said, "and I knew where your home was but I could not go to it myself, I would send a vampire in my stead. He did that with me already so we would be fools not to expect him to try it again. He would know that you could not hide in here forever and that you would probably return to somewhere that you perceive as safe."

I frowned, "He could send Weres too," I argued gently.

"I like your chances with Weres better than against vampires," he responded firmly.

I gave an innocent smile, "Really? Sheila might have something to say about that."

Eric didn't smile back, his eyes were dark and serious, "Do not be coy with me, Sookie. You pulled your punches with her, not wanting to injure her too much. You, leaving this building…is not a game."

He was right. I'd learned a valuable lesson earlier in the evening with Will and James; I'd be a fool to take unnecessary chances now.

"Okay," I said, "You're right. I'll wait."

Eric took my face in his hand and looked deep into my eyes, "Promise me," he said.

My heart broke for him. How hard it must be for him to let go of me after all that we had been through. If it weren't necessary for my survival, I was sure that he wouldn't be capable of trusting me to the unknown elements of the outside world. "I promise, I'll wait until sunrise in Hana to leave here." He studied me for a minute longer before kissing my forehead, stepping back and holding out his hand.

We dressed and went into the sitting room. "Sophie Anne, Andre and the Berts had their private rooms on the top two floors of the building. As you know, I changed many things when I took over. The top two floors are now vacant although I had them fully appointed in my and Pam's style of décor. Everyone, with the exception of my primary circle, believes that we inhabit those floors.

"I decided that the safest place to be was right in the midst of the action. If someone were to target the building, the first place they would strike would be the top floors since that is supposedly where my residence is." I closed my eyes at the thought of someone striking the building with a missile or bombs like in Rhodes.

Eric squeezed my hand as he led me through a familiar door to the horizontal elevator and out into a long hallway. It was still vacant and would remain so at night until Eric formally returned. After taking a quick look around at the typical business offices that were staffed mostly by vampires but also Weres, witches and humans, we reentered the elevator and Eric stopped it midway.

"I had this and part of the next floor mapped out into rings, with my and Pam's quarters at the center. What we just saw was actually the fourth ring out from our rooms. We pass through three sections in the elevator.

"The first layer out from my quarters is made of titanium, silver and steel plates and should withstand any blast so long as the building remains standing."

I gasped, "Doesn't the silver weaken you?"

He shook his head and ran a hand down my back, "No, it only bothers me if it's warm or if it touches my body." I nodded and he continued, "You have already seen part of the second layer out which consists of the variety of offices and meeting spaces I frequent.

"The third layer is one that you have not seen yet. It houses the offices for my primary circle of staff. They have sole access to their quarters on the next floor through private elevators from their offices. A thick layer of metal plates also protects their quarters, and the rest of the floor consists of offices. Everyone else believes that the central space on this and the next floor is top-level office space." I gave him an approving smile and he started the elevator again.

"I have eight different meeting rooms, all of which have elevator access directly to the room from the ground floor and some from an underground network I'll show you another time." I looked at him wide eyed; this was quite an impressive fortress.

He smiled and led me back into his room and into his private office and then opened a door next to the one that we'd entered to go meet Maeve. We stepped into a bare hallway, which was so thin that we had to walk single file.

"This passage runs between some of the layers of titanium and travels three quarters of the way around my and Pam's quarters, giving us access to each meeting room without traveling in the main hallway if we don't want to. We can also take others through this without compromising the security of our quarters. The only space that can't be accessed through this is my office and the rooms connected through that."

I frowned at him; "You take other people through here?" I asked, terrified at the thought of him being cornered in this tight space by an enemy.

I couldn't see his face, but I could hear the placating tone of his voice, "Only when absolutely necessary," he answered with a dark tone to his voice. "When I do, I am never without my guards and every entry point from our private rooms to a public space requires activation of two secure doors. It is quite impenetrable even to vampires. Even though this layer of the wall," he ran his finger down the wall, "is titanium, all of the doors are made with silver threaded into the metal and it's enough to keep a vampire from being able to break it down. However there are parts of the door which are free from silver that only Pam, myself, Will and James know of, just in case we need to touch the door in an emergency." I nodded to myself, satisfied that he had taken every precaution possible.

He led me down the hallway and we peeked into each of the rooms, always activating the two secure doors, just as he'd said. The meeting spaces ranged from comfortable and cozy to sterile and severe, but it was the last one we entered that made the strongest impression. This room was larger than the others and had an empty raised dais at one end. The walls were covered with flags and insignias, some of which I recognized, bearing the blue, gold and white of Louisiana and others that were unfamiliar.

On the wall behind the dais, was what looked like a glass cabinet, but given its contents and the security panel next to it, I was sure that it had to be some material much stronger than glass. Inside the cabinet was a long, light colored wood stake crossed with a shining sword that would look very comfortable in Eric's hand.

I looked away from it and noted that there was a large rug rolled up at one end of the room and the blue, white and gold tiled floor gleamed brightly. The only thing marring the beautiful floor was a two-foot wide drain directly in the center of the room. I turned and looked at Eric, waiting for an explanation, but not really wanting one.

He looked at me seriously, "This is necessary Sookie. I am the King. I must keep a firm rein on my population. Most of the time, the rug is down and I simply greet larger groups here, but there are times that I must carry out punishments or allow others to exact their vengeance in this room. Usually, all that is needed to clean up is a vacuum, but now that I am bridging more into Were and human dealings and politics, the drain is occasionally required."

Some of Maeve's memories were playing in my mind and I could see Eric ripping a vampire's head off and in another, he sliced the head off a Were in wolf form as he stood surrounded by other Weres. I'd seen vampire and Were justice carried out before, but this space was tainted by Maeve's fear and disgust, making everything more real to me. But just because I understood the need for it, didn't mean that I had to like it.

I closed my eyes, turned my back on him and walked to the door. I felt his hands on my shoulders as I was activating the security system. "Sookie," he began but I cut him off, putting my hand on his so would know that he didn't disgust me.

"We have a few more days before I have to face the full reality of your position as King. Give me a little more time please." He looked at me skeptically, "I'll deal with it Eric," I promised, "just not tonight." He nodded and we entered the passageway again.

When we hit a dead end, he ushered me through one more set of doors and back into his sitting room where he took my hand again and led me through a new doorway straight ahead and into a space I hadn't seen before. It was a suite of rooms with another sitting area, a bedroom and an office. Most of the space was bare except for the absolute necessities of a bed, lamps and a desk.

"This," he said with a small sweep of his hand, "is your space. I hope you will be comfortable here and enjoy decorating it to your tastes. My decorator left you books and there is a laptop and cell phone for you to use. Perhaps that is what you can do while you wait for sunrise in Hana."

I was a little sad I wouldn't be sharing his room, but I knew that we would need our own privacy too. "Thank you Eric," I said, wondering what he had given up to make this space.

He must have read my expressions because he said, "I only stay in this building on rare occasions. Typically I leave here close to dawn and return to one of my other residences. Likewise, I would prefer for you to only use this space when you need it, but to stay with me wherever I am when you don't have to return to Hana."

I pushed up on my toes and kissed his lips, "I'd love to," I whispered with a smile.

He kissed me gently, "Now I must return to my rooms, dawn is coming," he said and I could hear the fatigue in his voice. We walked back to his bedroom and he pulled off his clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor and climbed into bed. I had sweet flashbacks of tucking Hunter into bed as I pulled the covers up to his chest, brushed some hair off his forehead and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips.

He wound his fingers into my hair, "I don't want you to go Sookie," he said quietly.

"I know," I answered, knowing clearly how hard it was for him to let me go and loving him even more for his willingness to do so, "but I have to. I'll be back when you wake."

He closed is eyes and released my hair, "I know. Be safe. Be smart. Come back here if you have any concerns," he whispered and then fell asleep.

"I will," I said and with that, I kissed him on the forehead and returned to my new rooms to wait for another sunrise.


	36. Chapter 36

A/N- Just a reminder, SVM belong to CH, I'm just having fun with them.

Thank you to everyone for your support and to Charhamblin, my fantastic beta!

-This chapter is split into two sections. Sookie's first few bits are relatively heavy in symbolism and foreshadowing. Actually, much of the future of the story is laid out here in cryptic terms. You probably won't be able to make much of it now, but it's important and you might be able to make some good guesses...

I've changed my profile picture to something that I mention in this chapter. This website cuts some of the photo out so the full picture is on my relatively neglected wordpress site, Choices2make. I liked it so much for this purpose, I purchased the rights to use it from istockphoto.

o-o-o-o

Chapter 36

Take Better Care

E~

_In bed at headquarters._

_Silence._

_Covers tucked up to my chest. Naked. Room temperature._

_Myself. Sookie. Pam. Lasagna._

_Pam starting to stir. Sookie…_

My eyes opened. I took a deliberate breath of air. Sookie's scent was old, not as old as Pam's but she had not been in this room for about twelve hours. I listened deliberately and could hear Pam stirring in her bedroom, but there was no hint of Sookie. I sat upright and looked at the clock. 6:51 pm. It would be 1:51 pm in Hawaii.

_If that's where she went._

I rolled over onto my side and sat up, feeling the restraining weight of daylight slowly fall off me. My pants were still on the floor where I'd left them, a clear sign that Sookie had not been here. I reached down, picked up the pants and removed my phone from the front pocket where I'd left it.

Fuck.

I'd been too tired to plug it in and now the damn thing was dead. I had fully embraced technology, but I hated when it failed me because it reminded me that I was becoming dependent on something that was out of my control. I also hated it because it gave my enemies the same capabilities I had and perhaps even more, depending on the experts they had in their employ.

Fully awake now, I stood up and walked out of the bedroom, smelling the air as I went. Sookie's scent was stronger here, but only slightly so. I entered her rooms and was warmed immediately by the intensity of her essence here.

I smiled. She had done as she'd promised and waited until sunrise in Hawaii to leave here. A little tension in my chest resolved. It's not that I didn't trust her to keep her word; it's just that I'm not used to being out of control and having her leave here and go 'who knows where,' tested my restraint to new levels. If she didn't need to leave for her health, I don't believe that I would have the strength to let her go. But I'd seen her connection with the earth and the elements and felt it through the dream. She needed to be outside and I needed to let her go, and so I did.

Her scent was strongest by her desk, on the chair, computer and the papers spread out on the desktop. I was pleased to see that she had indeed been busy working on designing her rooms.

I followed her scent to the closet and found that she'd left her dirty clothes in the hamper. The only other area in the closet that she had touched was the shelf that held bathing suits Miriam had purchased for her. It was clear from the absence of one of the organized piles, that she'd selected one to wear. Had she left with nothing on but a bathing suit? Since no other areas in the closet had been disturbed, it was probable that she had. Although the thought turned me on, I didn't like the idea of her being so far away dressed in only a tiny bikini, but if she'd teleported directly to her inlet in Hana, there really hadn't been a reason for her to wear anything else.

I glanced at the clock as I walked from the room, 6:55.

Upon entering my office, I plugged in the useless phone and I couldn't stop the smile that crossed my lips when I glanced at my desk and saw that it was clear of the usual piles of paperwork that constantly harassed me. Paperwork had always irritated me as sheriff and now as king, even though I had many others to help me. We'd even managed to switch much over to be handled on the computer but I was still inundated with piles of the stuff.

For the next few nights however, I would be able to avoid it, and without the stacks of papers calling to me, I could enjoy my office. This room was one of the reasons I hoped Sookie would grasp onto the idea of decorating her space. I knew she had a lot on her mind and taking a few hours to do something for herself, something frivolous, might give her a tiny break from all the tension and worry she carried with her. The process had certainly helped me.

I'd allowed Pam and Miriam, with the help of the decorators to take care of all the rooms in the building with the exception of my private spaces which I wanted to do on my own. I'd most enjoyed designing this office and the 'playroom,' as Pam had called it, that I'd moved upstairs up so Sookie could have her own space here with me.

Our private rooms were the only spaces in the secured parts of the building that we allowed real wood and I relished it. Although little exists from the time, certain wood tables and chairs reminded me of my people and my time and I found it relaxing. The custom built-in bookcase shelves were made of mahogany wood that I'd had cut exactly to my measurements and Pam and I had installed it on our own. I liked that most everything in this space was built, painted, arranged and cleaned by our hands. It made something truly ours in a sea of needy and greedy hands always reaching, seemingly trying to pull off a piece of us.

I didn't keep my personal library here; I treasured the books too much to risk having them in such a high profile space as this. Those books, most of them irreplaceable, were in my most secure safe house, the first one I would show to Sookie once Maeve could get it warded successfully and the one I hoped she would consent to live in with me.

Even though most of my treasured volumes were in my home, I still had every inch of two walls filled with books that I referenced regularly. Here I collected books about business ownership, management, Louisiana's history, electronics, human, vampire and shifter laws and traditions, Fellowship of the Sun, finances and many others, covering every topic I needed to master as king.

The wall that I faced when seated at my desk took the place of windows and had three large photographs on it. Two were new within the last year and replaced the more somber paintings I'd selected when I first decorated this space. These new photographs were abstract black and white renderings of the engine and the steering wheel and front dash of my beloved corvette. I'd had to put the car in storage when I became king, so this was my only way of vicariously enjoying it.

The center painting was one Pam had selected for me. She called it motivational art. At first glance it might look like a tree in fall, with bright red trunks and branches reaching into a black sky. It truly was a striking sight, but it was not what it appeared to be at first glance.

Pam actually had to explain its significance to me when she delivered it. Thanks to modern technology, I now had a very stirring 3D picture of human blood vessels, bright red with healthy, oxygenated blood pumping through their walls. Pam had selected it for me in hopes that it would inspire me to fuck and feed. And honestly, it worked…not by making me hungry. I was already hungry. All the time. This picture separated the person from the blood for me and in my state of mind at that time, I needed to be able to close my eyes and see only blood vessels, willingly offering up their bounty to me.

It was the only way I could get myself to drink from a donor without being dragged back down into the morass of my unwelcome emotions.

Speaking of feeding, I was hungry. Glancing at the clock, 7:01, I went to my desk and opened the bottom left drawer, which housed the charging station for all my backup electronics. At all times, I had at least three extra phones, connected to the same number, charging and ready for use. I had learned the hard way that waiting to get a new phone caused more trouble than being prepared and I was hard on my electronics, so these reserves were frequently used. Of course I also had stashes of phones tied to other numbers as well as prepaid phones, but that wasn't what I needed now.

I pulled out and disconnected another black iPhone and powered it up.

No messages.

Should I call her? I didn't want to make her think I didn't trust her, but I'd expected to wake with her in my bed. Maybe she fell asleep on the beach or maybe she's enjoying some time with her friends. I tried to tell myself these things, but of course, anxiety started to creep into my chest as I began to wonder where she was.

I'd give her ten more minutes before I called her.

I walked back into the sitting room and opened the refrigerator that was designed to look like a cabinet and removed a bag of blood. I was becoming more and more resistant to the call of Sookie's blood, but I needed to keep myself well fed so there was no chance that I would lose control.

Last night had been close. I was already lost to my desire for her after watching her battle and defeat two of the most skilled warriors in my kingdom and then fight hand to hand with Sheila. Then she surprised me by slicing her own skin. My fangs ran out and I grew hard at the mere memory of the sensual sight she made, poised above me, eyes heavy with desire, hands running though her hair and over her breasts while blood flowed freely down her naked torso, creating bright red rivulets as it traversed the contours of her body.

If I ever thought the picture of the blood vessels in my office was a motivator I was horribly misled. Watching blood flow freely down Sookie's naked and flushed body as she straddled my chest was the most sensual thing I'd ever seen. It was simply the fact that I was so in awe of her that kept me from losing myself in my blood lust.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts as I punctured the collection bag and squeezed the thick blood into a glass and warmed it in the microwave I kept in the cabinet above the small refrigerator. Pam arrived as I was finishing the last drops in the glass.

"What's wrong?" she asked, cutting to the chase as she helped herself to my stores of blood.

I shrugged, "Probably nothing," I said, but the words sounded hollow to my ears. "Sookie's late in returning from Hawaii."

Pam froze and kept her eyes on the microwave, "She was due back at sunset?" I didn't respond, why bother when she knew the answer. She took my silence as confirmation. "Did you call her?"

I sat down in my chair, "No, not yet." She turned and frowned at me; I wasn't usually patient when people were late. Actually people weren't usually late when coming to see me.

My eyes were drawn back to the phone every few seconds as though a message from her could have somehow magically appeared on the screen, but it was blank. I checked the volume and the alerts and set each at the highest level.

"Well, call her," Pam said as though I were stupid. I pressed my lips together. This was Sookie. Things had always been different with Sookie. I'd always had to handle her differently, and I was aware that I would have to make even more adjustments to my normal responses than ever before. I had promised to give her freedom and to trust her abilities and her judgment.

I sat back in the chair. 7:06. I'd give her five more minutes. Pam glared at me from her perch on the armrest of the couch as she drank her blood and I ignored her as best I could while checking the weather in Hana. 84 and partly cloudy. I Google mapped the Hotel Hana on my phone and then zoomed in on the inlet, willing her to appear on the beach. I found the beach and could see the rock outcropping where we had sat together but of course the photo was probably taken months, if not years ago.

7:10. I scrolled to her cell number and pressed send. I didn't give a fuck that it was one minute early.

Pam stood up and I closed my eyes, trying to hold myself together when Sookie's phone rang in her room. I waited to open my eyes until Pam returned with the phone. "It was under papers on her desk," she said quietly. I took the offending device from her hand, ended the call and then placed both phones on the coffee table before I succumbed to my desire and destroyed them.

"Why wouldn't she take it with her?" Pam asked. I didn't have a fucking clue and Pam knew better than to ask such asinine questions. I couldn't answer her or even summon the will to growl at her, all I could do was stare at the fucking thing.

The bond was gone, so I couldn't feel her. The mental connection I'd grown to love so much was closed between us so I couldn't hear her and probably wouldn't even be able to anyway since she had gone so far away. At least I thought she had. There was no way for me to know where she had actually gone. What if she'd decided to meet up with Niall? It would be like him to contact her somehow and try to lure her out, and she would probably go, especially if he threatened someone she loved.

Fuck.

Flipping through my contacts, I used my phone to call her brother. He and his family were the only ones I could see Niall using against Sookie since Hunter was safe in Britlin. Jason's, "No, duh," response to my warnings about staying away from fairies confirmed for me that all was as well as it ever was in his household.

I tossed down my phone, grabbed her's again and scrolled through the call log. She'd spoken to my designer twice, Jason once and had called five unknown numbers. I checked each number and as expected, was connected to various stores or galleries. Her received call log was empty except for my number. The Internet history was just as predictable with the exception of her visiting a site designed by the 'adoring' fangbanger fans of Thalia.

My eyes were drawn up to the painting Sookie had admired last night and I could almost feel her shoulders under my fingers, her hands over mine, the heat of her body enveloping and warming my hands…

"Eric," Pam's tense voice broke me from my extended reverie in which I was reliving every minute I'd had with Sookie last night. I blinked and looked at her. "She's over an hour late, we're going to have to do something. Maybe Maeve can do a locator spell on her."

Yes. I stood up and sent Maeve a text, relieved to have a plan of action to keep me moving. Pam and I were dressed and in Maeve's office within three minutes. It looked like anyone else's office; she kept her magical devices and ingredients in her workroom in her residence on the next floor.

She greeted us as we walked in, "I think I've found a way to do the wards on all of the buildings you wanted without using so much of Sookie's blood," she said excitedly and then her smile faded when she took a good look at our expressions. "What's wrong?"

Pam answered her, "Sookie has not returned from her daytime trip to Hawaii. She was due back at sunset." Maeve gave Pam a confused look but her eyes flicked to mine briefly, her expression fearful.

I ground my teeth together and spoke through a tense jaw, "You will do a locator spell on her right now." I told her this, not willing to form it into a request as I usually tried to do with her, in case she were to tell me that she couldn't perform it.

I was relieved when her eyes flashed with the challenge of the task set out before her. "Yeah. Okay. I have everything I need upstairs, all I need for you to get is one of her hairs, an eyelash, a drop of blood, anything from her body."

I turned and sped back to my quarters. I searched in the bathroom for a brush, but it was brand new and I couldn't find any hairs on her desk chair or in my bed. Desperate now, I unlocked and then forced the door to my hideaway and propped it open with a small suitcase and then flew down into the bathroom below. I knew she had used the brush down here multiple times, I had even brushed her hair myself.

I found the brush in the top right drawer of the vanity and sighed with relief when I saw numerous long blond strands entwined in the bristles. I retraced my steps and was back in Maeve's office within seven minutes of leaving.

Maeve was still upstairs gathering her supplies with Pam's help and the two returned with candles, some water in a flask, a large glass bowl, a bundle of herbs and a spell book. As I had seen her do many times before, she pulled up the rug on the far side of the room revealing a circle drawn on the floor with symbols at four points that identified the demarcation of the cardinal headings, north, south, east and west.

Her eyes were already darker than normal and both Pam and I knew to remain silent unless she required our input or assistance. She held out her hand so I gave her the brush and watched as she wound her fingers through the bristles and formed a fist around the strands. Her eyes closed and she began to chant under her breath.

After a few minutes, she became silent and then opened her eyes. I knew something was wrong right away. "These are your hairs, just yours," she said and I was out the door and back in my rooms in a minute. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, trying frantically to find any remaining part of her. I caught the scent immediately, I'm not sure how I missed it earlier.

I sped to the garbage can in the bedroom and to my relief, found our shredded clothing from last night. I flung mine aside after smelling them and actually smiled when I found a smeared spot of her blood on a piece of her shirt. Closing my eyes, I breathed in her scent deeply. She entered through my nose, went into my lungs and then filtered through my cells, stripping me bare and leaving me aching. I was nearly knocked over by the cold terror that gripped my chest and had me reaching out to support myself on the wall.

Where was she? What had happened? What if I couldn't find her? Was she in pain? Scared? Flashbacks from sixteen years ago haunted me, tortured me...

Pam came into the room and I realized that I had been standing, unmoving, my hand against the wall, the remains of the shirt hanging at my side in my limp fingers. Pam didn't make eye contact as she gently removed the material from my hand, "I'll take this to her," she said quietly and started to walk away.

"I'm losing time again," I whispered.

She turned around, "I'm aware of that. I'll keep an eye on you. It won't get out of hand this time. It was so bad last time because it was part of the damage caused by the breaking of the bond, you know that. Doctor Ludwig confirmed it. You're just worried now." she said firmly. "Stay here, have more blood, then sit down and develop a plan. I'll stay with Maeve and then return to you when she finishes, but she says that it may take a few hours."

I nodded my gratitude and then she was gone. I did not follow. I did not get more blood. Instead, I wandered aimlessly into my bedroom and collapsed onto my bed. In here I could surround myself in her scent, not thinking, not moving, simply holding onto the edge of the cliff with the bare tips of my fingers, knowing that if I were to let go, I would tumble back into the abyss of despair from which I had just emerged.

At some point, I received a nudge from Pam through the bond and I sat up. I knew that I should be acting, but most pathways I followed simply exposed her to more danger if she were, in fact alright, but just distracted. There were a few steps I could and would take. I sent a text to my pilot and told her to be ready to leave for Hawaii at one o'clock AM. That would get me to Maui well before sunset there and I would have time to try and follow her trail. I texted Pam our travel plans, I didn't even think of going without her, this time I could readily admit that I needed her.

I called the Queen of Hawaii and informed her of our impending visit, claiming continuing fairy issues as my reason for coming. It wasn't a complete lie and if questioned, I had the Pythonesse's very recent support of my work to keep others from questioning my actions too much.

I also made overnight arrangements at a hotel in Lahaina to throw off anyone who might be following me and at the Hotel Hana for Pam and I under aliases so we would have somewhere to go if our investigation took too long. Then I just waited. I could feel the magic through the walls and so I didn't dare go to Maeve in case I were to disturb her work.

After another hour passed, I had to do something more, "Fuck it," I growled as I scrolled through my contacts and called Alcide.

"I heard you were on vacation," he said in greeting.

I ignored him, "I need your help contacting a Were in the town of Hana on the island of Maui."

Alcide was silent for a moment and then spoke, "For what purposes?"

Years ago, I would have become angry with him for questioning me but we had worked together for so long, I no longer assumed that he would try to block or irritate me just for sport or simply because he's a Were and I am vampire. Instead I answered him as honestly as I was willing, "One of my primary team has gone missing," I answered.

"Sheila?" he asked, his voice rising with concern.

"No, a new member," I said simply. "She should have been in contact at sunset our time, but I have heard nothing. I am…concerned."

"Give me the name of that town again and of her last known location. I'll make some calls and get right back to you," he said.

Typically I simply hung up after dispensing the necessary information, but I felt the need to say more. "I owe you Alcide," I said, binding myself to assisting him in the future. It hardly mattered since we worked together so much anyway, but saying it out loud let him know how very important this task was to me.

Within twenty minutes, my phone rang again, "I'm in contact with a lone Were from Hana, he's willing to help, and knows the area but he's about an hour away from the town. Tell me what he's looking for and he'll go straight there when he arrives. I heard my phone groan and relaxed my fingers just before I crushed it in my hand.

An hour. A fucking hour. I looked at the clock and was shocked to see that it was already eleven. She should have been here four hours ago. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to keep my cool and I managed to force a few words from my mouth, "She looks and smells somewhat like a fairy and has long blond hair. She was probably wearing a bathing suit."

Alcide was writing down the description, "But I thought fairies couldn't…"

I cut him off, "Just tell him to find her," I said through clenched teeth and then I did hang up on him.

I climbed out of the bed, her scent was no longer comforting, now it was taunting me and starting to drive me crazy. I paced the sitting room, watching the minutes tick by and finally I felt the magic cease, Pam was on her way here. She was blocking her emotions from me, so I steeled myself for what she would tell me.

My child entered the room and I sat down on my chair, unable to remain standing any longer. "Maeve did everything she could. Sookie's blood simply won't respond to the magic of the locator spell." I opened my mouth to ask her what that meant, but she held up her hand and continued, "That doesn't mean anything. Vampires can't be found with the spell either. It doesn't mean anything Eric," she said but her words were just white noise to me. The spell didn't work on vampires because we're dead.

Five hours.

Pam busied herself packing our bags for the trip to Hawaii, I was grateful to her for handling this. I'd taken one final step with telling Maeve to begin the long process of contacting the Britlingens. I would have them ask Hunter about Sookie. If Sookie could feel that Hunter was well, then Hunter surely would be able to feel her.

Now that I had done everything I could think of that wouldn't make the situation worse, I was unable to do anything else but sit there in my chair, holding my head in my hands and stare at the floor.

My phone finally rang and Pam answered it. I could hear that it was Alcide, but I ignored his side of the conversation. From Pam's responses, the Were had arrived at the hotel and was on his way down to the beach. Suddenly I was hit by a wave of relief from Pam and she said, "Oh...you fucking fairy. Never mind. Call him off…yes." Then there was silence except for the tapping of Pam's toe on the hardwood floor and the quiet thumping sound I had been dreaming of for hours.

0-0-0-0-0-0

S~

The minute my bare feet touched the sand of the inlet, I was hit by a wave of such unexpected and overwhelming relief, I sunk to the sand on my knees. Completely unable to control myself, I curled into a ball and trembled from a bone deep exhaustion I wasn't even aware of feeling as my body slowly begin absorbing strength and energy from the land around me.

The tide of energy began as a soft swell but I gasped and then cried out as the intensity continued to increase. I stretched full out on the sand of my isolated inlet, held my head in my hands and tried desperately to understand what was happening. The other times I had sought comfort here, I had been gifted with love and care from the elements and the healing I had received just a year ago was the polar opposite from what I was being pummeled with now. I just couldn't understand.

I tried to breathe slowly and to separate the sensations that were rocketing through my body, overwhelming my mind. At first I was unable to discern anything from the pounding mess, but with great effort and control, I isolated what I visualized as one fiber from the hundreds that made up the pressure in my head.

One at a time, I pulled each fiber away from the others, and realized that they weren't really fibers, but a silent yet deafening voice. Once I acknowledged and studied the voiceless message from each individual source, it became quiet and peaceful while the others raged on, awaiting my attention.

Slowly, I began to understand the message they were so eager to force upon me.

Whereas before, I had been embraced, lifted up and healed by the elements and by my 'akuas and aumakuas; I was now being not so much punished, as scolded by the same. It was the combined censure of the multitude of my forbearers and other sera fae that made up this noise and subsequent discomfort I was suffering.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, sure that they would hear me even if I didn't speak, but it helped me to say it out loud. "I'm sorry. I didn't understand. I thought I was the only one it would hurt. I didn't know."

I didn't know, but I should have. All of my teachers, from Pua to my martial arts and yoga instructors to the Britlingens, had taught me about the cycle of energy flow within nature. There is a rhythm to everything in life, I was acutely aware of that and of the fact that I was a part of it. Just as night must follow day, there must be a balance and a completion of a myriad of cycles for us to remain healthy and strong.

In my case, as this being that I am, I expend energy into the environment and then it is given back to me, passively and actively. It re-energizes me and heals me, thus negating or lessening my need for sleep and speeding my recovery from injuries. This cycle works best for me here in Hawaii or a similar land, and is stunted in Louisiana, but not halted. It wasn't my choice to reside in Louisiana that I was being punished for; it was my choice to cut myself off altogether from nature by remaining inside for so long.

I thought that I would only be hurting myself by agreeing to stay in the chamber with Eric, but that wasn't the case. It turns out that I had stolen my energy from my kin, living and past. I had broken my own energy cycle and had caused a glitch in an otherwise smoothly functioning synergistic relationship that I had with the other sera fae and the volcanic earth that we all depended upon.

I was an important component in this relationship and this greater cycle and it was my responsibility to do my part to keep the system flowing smoothly. That dependence on each part of the whole must be why I knew while in Britlin, and still know now, that Hunter was safe and well. I share his energy and he shares mine. So I guess that somewhere, we're sharing energy with our mysterious makua, just as I know we share energy with Haumea, the mother earth, her daughter Pele and the other gods and goddesses of the nature around us.

This connection didn't make me a goddess, far from it, but I was one piece in a cycle that began with Haumea creating Pele. I pictured it as a grouping of gears all turning together, some moving quickly and some slowly, depending on their size. All of them working in concert but individually. The gear next to ours belonged to the descendants of Namakaokaha'i and another to Poliahu, and the rest were made of the descendants from the other gods and goddesses and were still driven by their original energies and powers.

When I visualized this parallel between the types of fae, my heart broke for the war that raged between such similar bloodlines. Yes, we were unique from one another and as one line grew stronger, it affected the others, but adjustments could be made to adapt to that change. Just as a smaller gear can speed up or a larger one could slow down to keep pace with the unit, we could adjust. The entire gear didn't have to be removed to preserve the status quo that these silent voices were telling me so adamantly to maintain.

Long ago, I had asked Mr. Cataliades what I would owe the one who gave us the money that helped Hunter and I escape Louisiana and had been told that it was a gift freely given. I'd always assumed the same of the energies I accepted from nature, but I'd been wrong. That is not a gift freely given. There is a price to pay and that price is that I must return the energy, participate in the cycle, work to preserve myself and the whole.

I took a deep breath, relieved to see that with this understanding of my role in my larger community, the cacophony of complaints ceased to abuse my mind. Most of the strands became individual sources of energy that wrapped around me and gently began to replenish my exhausted body and mind. Although I was now aware of another responsibility I had to fulfill, it was a natural and comfortable role for me. I was happy to take a more active role in sharing the energies of my kind rather than simply taking it as I had been doing so far.

Satisfied that I had interpreted the messages the best way I could, I opened my eyes and screamed. Glaring down at me was a face I had never wanted to see again. Pele's son stood feet away on the volcanic rock outcroppings and I knew, just as I had known the day I first met him on Oahu, that he would kill me if Pele would allow it.

Through my terror, I saw the sun break though a thin cloud and the water called to me, lapping at my toes, and I found I was able to make my way down the beach into the shallow lagoon where somehow, I knew he would not follow. I watched, my breath tumbling from my mouth and limbs shaking as he was absorbed into the rocks around him and he left me in peace.

I covered my face with my hands and sunk beneath the water where I divested myself of my bikini top, needing to feel the water on more of my body. I stayed in the water until I was chilled and then returned to the beach, where I collapsed face down onto the warm sand and fell asleep with the glorious warmth and safety of the sun beating down on me.

0-0-0-0

A cloud passed in front of the sun, casting me in shadow and even though I was dry, I shivered. I rolled over and glanced up at the sun to see how long it would be obscured by the cloud.

Shit!

I sat bolt upright, gasping. There was no sun at all, only a dimly lit sky with thick gray clouds and a few remaining pink fingers of color threading through the horizon.

Horror gripped me. I had promised Eric that I would be back over five hours ago. He would be frantic. I jumped up, ignoring the fact that I was naked except for my bikini bottoms and the sand that covered most of my body, and I felt for Eric. I found him easily and teleported directly to his side.

Eric and Pam were in his bedroom. Pam was standing near the door with a cellphone to her ear and Eric was seated in his chair with his back bowed and his head held in his hands. His hair blocked his vision so it was Pam who saw me first.

"Oh...you fucking fairy," she groaned in a deep sigh, "never mind. Call him off…yes," she said into the phone and then she turned on me with fire in her eyes.

Eric's head snapped up the second he heard the relief in Pam's voice.

o-o-o-o

Never.

I'd never seen such a haunted look in his eyes before and I prayed that I would never see it again. He didn't blink; he just stared at me with those hollow eyes and blank expression. I vaguely noted hearing Pam leave the room, but all my focus was on Eric.

Dropping to my knees in front of him, I took his face in my hands and an even deeper terror filled my heart when he didn't move or even blink. I ran my thumbs over his cheeks and down his temples, "I'm so sorry Eric. I fell asleep. The healing...it wasn't what I expected, it…"

The words faded in my mouth as Eric awoke from his stupor and lunged at me with his fangs down, his fingers cruelly squeezed my upper arms and he dragged me up with him as he stood. "Where have you been?" he nearly yelled at me.

"Hana, at the inlet. I was there all day," I answered, my voice higher than normal because of how he was pulling me up onto my tiptoes to get my face closer to his.

"Do you have any idea…?" he began.

"Yes!" I cut in, "I'm completely aware of how badly I messed up and I know it won't change anything but I'm sorry. It wasn't at all like the last time, I…"

He shook me so hard my neck hurt, "No. No excuses. You told me you would be back here more than five hours ago. Five hours!" he yelled into my face, his lips pulled back in anger. "I have been waiting for you for every one of those minutes. I had no way of contacting you since you chose to leave your cell phone here. I had no way of feeling or hearing you. I had no way of knowing if you were even alive!" He let go of me and ran his fingers through his ragged hair, "I know nothing of your life in Hana. You've hidden those details from me. I don't know your friend's names or who might have been able to help locate you. I couldn't contact any vampires there because it was day and I wouldn't dare to do that anyway since if you were just sleeping or if you had been injured, it would only put you at more risk. The locator spell didn't work on you and the local Were had to drive an hour back to Hana to search for you."

I must have hit my head at some point because I said, "Why didn't you call the hotel? If you had, they would have sent someone down to look for me, even though no one ever goes there, it's still their property."

His eyes were so bright, they almost hurt to look at, "Why didn't I? Because I didn't think of it!" he yelled at me. "I am not in the habit of losing people I am responsible for. Most of them do what they tell me they will do so I am not left wondering what the hell happened to them!"

"I said that I was sorry!" I said back, the volume of my voice increasing to match his. "It's not like I planned this Eric. Perhaps my day wouldn't have sucked so bad if you hadn't poisoned me for a week and a half." I squeezed my eyes shut. No, I wasn't going to throw false accusations at him like he was doing to me. I took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, that was out of line. Please, let's calm down and think about this rationally."

Eric was right in my face again before I even saw him move. "Rational. You want rational. How's this for rational? You will not leave this building again without a guard with you at all times. You will always carry weapons with you rather than traveling in your fucking bathing suit or mostly naked as you apparently did today. You will never leave my sight without your cell phone on your body at all times and you will check in with me every thirty minutes, leaving me messages during the day so I know that you are okay. You will never go anywhere without me in the dark…"

"Eric!" I interrupted him, "listen to yourself…" I began again but he grabbed me again, harder this time, "Listen to myself?" he said, a crazed expression in his eyes, "I have been listening to myself Sookie, for five and a half hours. I had nothing else to listen to because you weren't here!"

I was sick of being yelled at, of being accused and threatened. I glared at him, looking for any sign that he would be calming down any time soon, but saw nothing but fury.

I wrenched my arms out of his grasp and moved back a few steps, "When you've calmed down, you can find me in the training room," I said and teleported back to the inlet, anger now my primary emotion.

I stood on the rocks overlooking the moonlit sand and tapped into the first and most important skill the Britlingens had taught me. Focusing on my skin cells, I called the tiny particles of the volcanic earth to me. I smiled as I felt the thin layer of particles almost small enough to be called dust join together to create a barrier over my skin starting at my feet and traveling up all the way to the middle of my neck.

I opened my eyes and looked down at my armor. I kicked a leg high in the air and felt the matrix of the form I had built flex with my every movement. I was pleased to see that Hawaii seemed to have an even higher level of labradorite in it, which added a slight blue sparkle to the duller orange/brown of the feldspar that made up most of my armor. When combined in this form of matrix, and held together by the will of my body, they made a defense system that was stronger and harder than both iron and silver but that flexed with my every movement like the most supple leather.

Only the male Britlingens could create the armor. The females wear a similar shell that was created by a male and if you can believe it, compared to what I had on, Clovache and Batanya's armor now appeared bulky to me. I ran a hand down my ribs to my hips, loving that something so incredibly strong could feel soft and smooth.

Despite months of work, the one thing I had consistently struggled with was making the helmet that accompanies the armor. I held out my hand and pictured creating a circular boundary with the volcanic fragments, forming the bowl of the helmet. It fell into place easily, just the right size as I had practiced it thousands of times. That was the easy part. The hard part for me was adding the exact right amount of heat to melt the minerals just enough to create a cohesive and immobile unit so that the helmet would take and keep shape.

"Fuck!" I yelled as I liquefied my third helmet into a pile of goo that looked like melted colored glass. This wasn't going to work; I was still too upset. I decided to abandon it all together and I teleported to the headquarters but went straight to the training room rather than back to Eric. A quick check told me that he was still fuming in his room and I needed to work off some aggression before I subjected myself to his anger again.

Will and Sheila were crouched over a small desk looking at papers and James was sitting on the floor working on a laptop when I arrived. It took only two seconds for all three of them to focus in on me.

Will immediately pulled out his cell phone and texted Eric telling him I was here. James approached me slowly, eyeing me curiously. I realized that I must present an incongruous sight with my tidy and easily recognized armor but my hair wild from healing in the ocean and drying in the sun on the beach. I watched as Sheila hurried to the elevator and went downstairs, responding to a summons by Eric.

"Sookie," James said cautiously, "Does Eric know you're here?" he asked.

"Yes," I answered. It wasn't a lie. He knew I was back, he's seen me and Will had just told him. He didn't have to know that I hadn't come straight here, although the ten-minute lapse in time would probably be a big tip off. I'd told Eric I would be up here because I didn't want to hurt him any further; we just needed some time apart to cool down.

James looked me up and down, surveying my armor, "You are Britlingen?" he asked.

"No," I said, "just trained by them." His eyes widened at that.

I walked past him into the weapons area and took down a long iron sword. I visualized the small particles that made up my armor pulling back from my index finger, doubling up in other areas, and it did, exposing up to the first knuckle. I ran the pad of my finger down the long, smooth blade. I felt nothing out of the ordinary so I turned the blade slightly and sliced my finger and then rebuilt the armor so quickly that James and Will only caught the scent of my blood for a split-second before it was contained. Inside the armor, I could feel the small cut bleeding and then healing. What I didn't feel was any negative effects from the iron in my bloodstream.

Eric would have been angry at me for my bold exploration, but I had to know if I would become sick or weak if I did get cut by iron and no matter how much he would argue, this was the only way to do it.

Satisfied, I found a helmet that fit me and then turned to Will and James, holding the sword. "I need a training partner for an hour or two. Any takers?" I asked.

Will had a sword in his hand in less than a second. "What is your skill level," he asked, allowing me to hear for the first time, his deep baritone voice with a very slight underlying accent.

I shrugged, "Against what population?" I asked.

"Skilled vampires," he answered as though I were a small, foolish child. I took a deep breath, trying to control the irritation that had me itching to strike out at anything that upset me in the least.

"Your guess is as good as mine. Take your best shot below the neck. My armor is impenetrable to any of these weapons, but I don't trust this helmet very much," I said with a shrug as I pulled my hair up into a bun and stuffed my head into the helmet.

I learned very quickly that fighting angry is a quick way to get myself killed. Will was not only skilled with the sword, but also excellent at strategy and reading my moves. Typically I was better, but tonight I simply wanted to fight out my aggression.

"Your footwork is acceptable and you handle the weapon well enough, but you are letting your emotions lead you straight into my blade," he said after his sword had thudded against my armor yet again, throwing me back a few steps and causing me to gasp to regain my breath.

"I thought you were supposed to be stronger today and that you were trained by the famed warriors from Britlin," he said spitefully and I felt my lip curl.

"My day didn't turn out exactly the way I anticipated, and yes, I was trained by the Britlingens, but only for a year and we had a lot to cover." He laughed derisively at me.

I jumped to defend myself; "I know I need work on weapons skills when facing vampires, why the fuck do you think I'm here with you? Most of my training was focused on killing someone before they got this close or without traditional weapons. If I remember correctly, you should shut your mouth since I didn't see you laughing last night."

He growled at me and let his fangs show a little. Gratified to have struck a nerve with that one, I smiled back at him nastily, "Ooh, scary," I said. I was royally pissed off now so I let a burst of fire leap from my hand into the open space to my side. "You put away your primary weapons," I said gesturing to his fangs, "and I'll put away mine," I said wiggling my fingers.

When he didn't respond, I turned away from him, "Maybe James wants to help me instead," I with saccharine sweetness in James' direction.

"No, I will continue your instruction," Will said flatly, "perhaps if you are more skilled, others around you will not have to give their lives for you." I gaped at him, who the fuck did he think he was? "Do you deny that you are a risk to those around you?" He demanded.

Damn, I'd hoped last night would have alleviated these concerns, "No, but I am also an asset as you saw last night." I answered forcefully.

"Good. Then prove it," he said forcefully. "Continue."

I almost balked, but whatever his methods, I would learn from him in the end, so I'd put up with it for now. One thing for sure I thought sarcastically, was that Will was a real fucking 'winner.' I couldn't wait to spend all my nights with him following us around, what fun we would have. I'd take Sheila or James as my guard any night over this cranky tight wad.

By the time we'd been at it for about thirty more minutes I'd worked most of my anger off and I was able to think a little more clearly. As I had calmed, I got better and better at keeping up with and occasionally surprising Will. No matter how much I disliked him, and to my great dismay, he was a very good instructor. At one point, after I managed to score a shallow slice to his side, I stood back from him and closed my eyes while taking a few deep breaths to try and take advantage of my now calm state so I could work on mastering myself and beating Will.

When I opened my eyes, Eric was in Will's place, holding his sword, and Will and James were already at the elevator.

Eric didn't look angry anymore and I refused to open my mind to him so I had to rely on his expressions and the tone of his voice to guide me.

"Care for a new sparring partner?" he asked and flicked the tip of his sword at me with a slight lift of his eyebrow.

I brought the tip of my blade to meet his, accepting his challenge and we began. I knew immediately that he was holding back, but since I was already giving it my all, I didn't complain. After all, I knew that it was imperative to defeat a vampire before it came to hand to hand combat.

Eric stopped us frequently to give me tips, not so much correcting my style or execution, but my timing and strategy. He was a huge proponent of me using my other powers to enhance my fighting techniques whereas I wanted to be able to defeat a vampire or fairy without relying on my extras since I'd learned that I could lose them at any given moment.

We worked side-by-side as student and teacher for a few hours, never addressing what had happened between us and never allowing emotion to interrupt our work.

Finally Eric hung up his sword and sat down on a soft stretching mat. I removed my helmet, mopped off my sweaty face with a towel and then willed all the tiny pieces of my armor to move to my hands. Cool air hit my sweaty body as I bent over the garbage can, placed my hands into the clean plastic liner and allowed the minerals to drop into the bag. I twisted the neck of the bag and pulled it out of the can. If I wanted to use the armor again, I would need to keep this handy or make a quick trip to get some more. Louisiana simply didn't have enough labradorite and fledspar to support the creation of the armor.

Eric was watching me closely so I thought of some comfortable sweats and a t-shirt in my closet and was a little more ready to go sit by him once I had some clothes on. It's not that I was embarrassed or modest, far from it actually; I just felt stronger and more capable when I was clothed.

A flash of deep red caught my eye and I wiped off the dried blood from my fingertip onto the damp towel, happy to see that the wound from the iron blade had healed perfectly.

I sat down on the mat a few feet from Eric and began to stretch. Eric didn't say a word, so I continued the relaxing cooling down routine I followed after every training or exercise session. It generally helped my mind as much as or more than my body so I gave it my all tonight.

I was stretching my shoulders when he finally spoke, "I know you didn't come home late on purpose. I should not have struck out at you in anger. Forgive me."

I dropped my hands back into my lap, "I will." Of course I would, "I know you lashed out because you were scared more than angry."

Eric's eyes flashed, "I wasn't scared Sookie," he said, and I almost called 'bullshit,' but he continued, "I was terrified."

I would have been surprised by his admission if I hadn't been privy to his emotions through our dream, that's why I knew just how much my unexplained absence for such a long time would upset him. Instead I just closed my eyes and nodded.

"Will you tell me what happened? I'll listen now," he said and I felt his fingers wind into mine and his thumb gently caress the side of my hand.

Of course I would, I'd do almost anything for him.

0-0-0-0

Later that morning, we returned to his bedroom and I prepared to slip into bed with him. I'd had enough, I needed some peace and the only way to ensure that I got it was to stay tucked in bed right here with Eric. I couldn't imagine that I'd have to be outside every day, a couple of times a week should suffice.

"What are you doing?" Eric asked me as he stripped out of his clothes and added them to the pile on the floor. We'd have to talk about that…what did he do, let his clothes pile up until he couldn't walk to his bed anymore? He didn't let a maid in and I was sure Pam didn't clean up after him so he had to do it sometime. But that was for another time.

"If you have to ask me that," I teased, "I've got my work cut out for me."

He smiled and then frowned at me when I peeled my shirt off and sand sprinkled down into his bed. "Oops," I said as I hopped out of the bed and tried to wipe the sand out. Unfortunately, all I managed to do was make the sand hop over onto his side of the bed.

"You can teach me anything you want, but you are not sleeping here today," he said firmly. He walked to the side of the room and opened a hidden panel, which revealed a wall of weapons of all description. He took down an iron dagger and a stake and placed them in a small satchel that he pulled from a compartment below the weapons. He placed the satchel on the bed, disconnected my cell phone from a charging cord and set it on the bed as well.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Sheila is resting now, but she will meet you in my office at 11:23 AM," he said in a voice that told me he would tolerate no argument.

I tried anyway, "Oh, Eric, no. I can't take her with me. I'll just stay here today. That was my plan anyway. I feel fine, I don't need to go everyday, just once in a while."

Eric stepped closer to me, tilted my head back with one finger under my chin and kissed me. "Sookie, nothing would make me happier than to be able to keep you by my side at all times, but that is not possible. This is what you need to survive. I will let you go again," he said, his fingers trailing from my chin to the back of my neck where they cradled my head, "but you must promise me to take better care. It seems that despite the tongue lashing you received yesterday from your bloodline and the visit from your angry kin, you were not in peril...but I was. Take. Better. Care." Tears threatened to fill my eyes so I blinked them back and kissed his cheeks.

"I'm so sorry," I said again.

"I know," he answered, his blue eyes melting into mine, speaking volumes. That phrase, 'I know,' which for others might seem to be an offhand comment, had taken on deep significance for us. It meant that we understood the other, that we felt the other's deepest emotion and took it into ourselves, welcoming, accepting and forgiving.

"Thank you," I said and he kissed me lovingly in response. His hands finally caressed my body, holding me closer than usual, treasuring each inch of skin, every curve and point of heat.

His mouth broke from mine and he ran his nose up my temple into my hair, "You might not feel that my precautions are necessary for you, but they are vital for me. Please comply with them."

I nodded in acquiescence, realizing more clearly than ever before that Eric and I had created our own interdependent unit; just like the one I had with the sera fae and nature. What one of us did immediately affected the other.

Taking care of him and thus myself, keeping our little gear turning smoothly in the midst of the huge machine of our crazy lives was another responsibility I gladly accepted.

I took him by the hand to lead him to the shower to get clean while I showed him just how very vital he was to my survival.


	37. Chapter 37

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added this story to your lists. A huge thanks to my beta, Charhamblin.  
>CH owns SVM, I'm jsut playing around.<p>

Chapter 37  
>The Mercury is Falling<p>

S~

My back hit first and stars burst before my eyes as my head followed suit, slamming on the ground and rattling my brain painfully. Without thought, my left hand shot up toward my attackers' neck, making contact and pulling her closer so I could slam the heel of my free hand to her nose.

She screamed in rage as my aim struck true and I had to block another blow to my face while I rolled us over and jumped to my feet. I took the offensive this time and feigned a kick to her shoulder but actually making contact with her face, allowing my kick to carry all my force. She stumbled back, blood dripping from her eyebrow as well as her nose now and suddenly her backward momentum shifted into a low crouch.

Shit, I knew this move and I had yet to figure out how to defend against it. Last time, I'd tried to meet her head on like a rugby player and had landed on my back, so this time I tried jumping over her as she lunged at me. She had aimed low, her whole body horizontal to the ground, but at the last moment, her upper body moved in impossible ways and she grabbed my airborne legs, piercing my skin with her nails.

We both hit the ground and she clawed her way up my body, giving me a chance to knee her in the neck, kick my legs free from her grasp and climb atop of her. I grabbed her by her short, light brown hair and smashed her face into the floor and then screamed when she grabbed my hand and twisted it with both of hers. I had to roll off her to keep the bones of my wrist attached, but on the way, I landed another blow to the back of her neck with my opposite elbow.

She pushed herself up onto her knees and let go of my wrist, grabbed my hair and cocked her hand back to punch my face. Right before I defended myself with a kick to her head, a loud alarm sounded from the side of the room, bringing all action to a halt.

Sheila sat back on her heels and wiped the blood off her face with the bottom of her shirt. "Another stalemate thanks to your boyfriend," she said as she backed away from me, retrieved her phone and sent Eric his requisite text for that period of thirty minutes. Most of Eric's 'requests' for security precautions were reasonable, but this was one that I would have found a way around, if I had to do it. Sheila didn't seem to mind and she stuck to the routine of reporting to him like clockwork.

"Are you referring to my husband or your boss?" I asked, looking down at my bloodied legs, which were already healed.

She laughed, "Uh-oh, I'd better watch out, the fairyfae's getting feisty now," she taunted as she reset the timer on her phone and rolled her shoulders a few times.

Against all odds, I was beginning to find a sick form of enjoyment from my enforced time with Sheila. She was a royal bitch all right, but she had a good sense of humor and was the first supernatural training partner I'd ever had who was willing to beat the crap out of me and not worry when I bled a little. The Britlingens had been happy to train me until I was completely exhausted, but I'd had to wear my armor all the time so I was protected from the intensity of the blows and from any injuries. They would be absolutely horrified to see my blood being spilled this way. I didn't mind, I found it freeing and a great way to release my tension.

Once I'd learned that Sheila healed faster than the average shifter, I was eager to get back in the training room with her. She was happy to oblige and we'd spent some time here yesterday and now today. The only rule to our engagement was that she couldn't shift and I couldn't use my 'extras' as she called them, including my telepathy.

"Don't you need a rest? After all you're really just a mutt, you shouldn't push yourself so hard." I tossed back at her. I was getting better at holding my own with talking smack with her, although I still was somewhat cautious about what I said. She was so good at it because she didn't care if she hurt anyone's feelings.

"Thanks but no, however you might want to go hide behind your boyfriend, I think I spilled a little of your blood there. Maybe you need him to save you," she said with a slight smile and then she chugged a whole bottle of water.

I helped myself to a few sips of my own bottle, "I think I'll be just fine since I healed before you picked your bruised body up off the mat. How about you? I don't want you unable to do you job of protecting my husband," I said with false sincerity.

"I'll be healed by tonight. I'm a mutt, remember?" she said with a wicked smile, her yellowish-green eyes sparkling with pride at her heritage. I was more curious than ever to learn exactly what that heritage was, but she wasn't willing to share just yet.

"Are you ready, you've wasted enough time already. Only twenty-five minutes until you have to report back in to your boss," I said walking back out to the center of the mat.

"Yeah? She countered, "and whose fault is that, Miss. 'I'm going to forget my phone and be over five hours late'."

I grimaced; Eric was still recovering from those five hours. Last night I'd returned half an hour early and we'd gone through our steps of continuing my weapons training, but he wasn't himself. He'd yelled at Will when his guard had thrust his sword at my prone chest after knocking me to the ground during a fantastic training session in which I had been holding my own and keeping him on the defensive over half the time.

My armor had held firm as both Will and I had known it would, but Eric had demanded on taking over as my instructor again at that point. I learned a lot from him of course, but I needed more and I needed it from someone who was less overprotective of me.

Today Sheila and I were definitely giving each other 'more.' We'd been in the training room for three hours already, having met here right after sunrise. The goal had been to see who would have won the fight that Eric interrupted the first night I was introduced to the guards, but each time we fought, we were interrupted by the damn timer before we determined a winner.

"I didn't need it," I said in a voice that was more like a growl, sick of defending my actions. She threw her empty bottle of water at me and I batted it away.

"Right. The prince of the fairies is out to get you and you don't need a phone or a weapon. You're an idiot," she said circling me.

"I have weapons," I said, "do you want to see them?"

She smiled nastily at me, "That's alright, I already saw your 'weapons' yesterday, remember?"

I had to laugh at that one, recalling the look on her face as we teleported for the first time. She'd grabbed onto me like I was her life raft and in the process, ended up with her face smashed into my bikini-clad cleavage. The look on her face had been beyond priceless and had given me my first belly laugh in what felt like forever.

"I thought shifters were all fine and dandy with nudity? What? Are you a were-prude? Is that your secret?" I asked, still smiling. I knew that her attack was coming and that this conversation was just an attempt at distraction.

"I'm fine with my own nudity, I don't need yours too. Keep that for your boyfriend."

"Husband," I corrected again with a snarl and then I lunged at her, signaling the start to our next session.

o-o-o

"Holy shit!" Sheila exclaimed as she stumbled away from me, wrenching her arm out of my hand and eventually ending up falling onto her jeans clad ass on the hard, but luckily for her, well-worn volcanic rock.

I laughed out loud at her again. I was filled with euphoria at the sight of this annoying woman rubbing her ocean water covered ass with a look of mixed shock and nausea apparent on her tough-girl face.

Yesterday morning, I'd prepared her for the variety of things that might happen to me here and had warned her about Pele's son, telling her to keep her distance from him if he made an appearance. She wouldn't have a chance against him, hell, I couldn't think of anyone who could defeat him besides Pele.

Of course she'd argued with me about every step in my plan and every suggestion I made for her and so I'd given up. What did I care if she was uncomfortable in her jeans and black shirt with no blanket or towel and definitely no bathing suit? At least she'd agreed to slap on some sunblock and had covered her eyes with a pair of wide sunglasses, but she'd refused a hat, saying it would block her vision. Hopefully her short cut hair and black tank-top would keep her cool enough.

I watched her curiously as she surveyed the area. Again I was struck with the belief that she wasn't a Were and tried to determine just which type of shifter she could possibly be. She stood still, facing the cliffs, only turning enough to visually inspect each inch of the land around us. As she scanned, she sniffed the air and tilted her head slightly to the side, listening intently.

After a few minutes, she grumbled to herself and climbed a rock wall; occasionally leaping from one rock to another using that same slinking pattern of movement I'd seen her use in the training room. I was pretty sure that she had to be some kind of predator, but something more feline and flexible than the wolves.

Once she settled down, alert but still, and almost faded into the background, I had to focus on myself. I'd hoped this would be easier today, and it was. In fact, I really didn't feel a thing besides a general level of comfort. Excellent.

I removed my backpack which contained my weapons, cell phone, extra change of clothes, sneakers, towel, water and some food Sheila brought for both of us. I still hadn't figured out where I could get food on my own, it just seemed to appear when I needed to eat. That would have to change soon.

Freed from my physical burden, I stood and stripped off my shorts and shirt, having learned yesterday not to travel with Sheila without a shirt over my bikini top.

I spent some time in the water, just floating, enjoying the water and the morning's bright sun. Then I swam over to my rock seat, which unfortunately was right below Sheila's perch. It was time that I explored the give side of the give and take of power more actively. I gathered up the new energy I'd gained from the water and sun, placed my hands on the rocks around me just below the water's surface and pushed the energy out, enthusiastically envisioning the cycle I belonged to.

The release of energy felt good and I was in the middle of a deep sigh of relief when the energy rebounded on me and a huge wave hit me at the same time, picking me up and tossing me up onto the rocks right at Sheila's feet.

"Well, damn." I heard Sheila's laughter filled voice say over the crashing of water, "Who'd you piss off now, Fairyfae?"

Good question. I shook my hair out of my eyes and rearranged my bikini top, which had shifted significantly before looking up at Sheila. I had to smile when I saw her brushing water out of her eyes and frowning down at her soaked jeans as huge drops of water fell from the rocks above her.

"Who knows," I answered, "I never got my instruction manual."

Maybe I wasn't supposed to try and give the energy back quite so directly. Maybe just the normal energy I spent during my days and nights was enough to maintain the cycle. It had worked for me until now, so I decided to stop trying so hard, hoping that simply spending time here on Hana would suffice. I picked myself up off the ground and found a smooth rock to sit on while I caught my breath.

"So what's the deal? Why do you come here?" Sheila asked. I shrugged and we sat in silence for a few minutes. Sheila got impatient, "So you come here because…?" She asked leadingly.

"And you're interested because…?" I threw back at her.

She sighed, "Listen, I know you said you come here to heal and to gain energy, but it doesn't seem to be doing much for you today and you were pretty strong this morning. You were stronger than yesterday at least so is there somewhere else we could go? This spot is a defensive nightmare. You said you lived around here. Why not go home?"

I glanced around the inlet, but I didn't feel pulled here anymore and she was right that this was a very hard place to defend against attack. Maybe it was time to move on. I nodded at Sheila and stood to go retrieve my backpack. Once I had the bag secured, I turned back to her with my hand held out, "It's probably best if we teleport," I said trying and failing to hide my smile.

"How far is it?" she asked, clearly wanting to walk instead. "Only a few miles, but you're going to have to get used to traveling this way with me anyway and you don't want to be stumbling around in front of the guys. Eric has only teleported with me once, but he didn't even flinch. You're on your fourth try, so it's probably better to get used to it when it's just you and me."

"Like that's any better," she muttered looking so unhappy that I took pity on her. "Listen, it might help if you had a clear picture of where we're going in you mind. Let me share my thoughts with you for a minute so you can at least pretend that you're in control. Maybe you can fool your body into thinking that you are," I said with a shrug.

"Keep out of my head," she said aggressively and I sniggered. "I'm always in your head when I'm trying to listen for anyone else, you're a little difficult to ignore, especially when you're spewing hate at me like you were the first night we met." It took her a minute to process that and then she just shrugged, deciding that she didn't care what I heard. She was convinced she wouldn't think anything she wouldn't say and as far as I could see, she was right.

"Fine, go ahead," she said, holding out her hand to me. I gave her my forearm to grab, projected the image I had of my backyard into her mind and teleported us both there. To her credit, she only stumbled a little when we arrived, "Yeah, that worked," she said as she released my arm and looked around. "You live here?" she asked incredulously, "Tough life you lead."

I ignored her, grinning like a fool as I looked around my home again. I'd missed being here so much. Although neither Hunter nor I had been here in over a year, it still looked perfect and there were signs that the landscapers had been by recently. Even the flowers on my porch looked healthy, someone must be watering them. Macey, it had to be Macey or one of the girls.

I wandered up the walkway and onto the lanai to the backdoor where I activated the fingerprint door lock. The door unlocked and I swung it open, very happy to be back. I pointed out the bathroom to Sheila and told her to feel free to explore, but she insisted that I wait while she explored around the house for any intruders. I sighed since I knew full well that no one else was on the property, at least not a being that I could sense.

Once she gave me the go-ahead, I set some water on to boil to make iced tea. Thankfully someone had been in here to empty the fridge and take out the garbage when I'd disappeared to Britlin for a year. That would have made for a very unfortunate welcome home surprise.

A few minutes later, we were settled down at the cliffs, me on the rocks, looking out at the water and Sheila in a chair, facing the land. She was much happier here, feeling that she was at less of a disadvantage in this environment than at the bottom of the bowl of the inlet.

She actually relaxed a little and after a while, she was ready to talk again. "So what are you really? Eric says you're a mixture of fairy and another type of fae, but you don't act like any fairy I've ever met."

I shrugged, lying down on the rocks and closing my eyes, "There are all kinds of fae," I said. She snorted, "Great. Thanks. That's really going to help me protect you two."

I opened my eyes again, propped myself up on my elbows and looked at her, "What are you?" I asked pointedly.

"I'm your guard," she responded. I closed my eyes and reclined back down on the rocks. When she realized that I wasn't going to say anymore, she gave it one more try. "I'm a shifter."

The corner of my lip twitched, so we were going to play that game. Once again I found myself enjoying her even though she annoyed me, "What kind?" I asked.

She answered with a question, "What kind of fae are you?"

I shook my head in frustration; this was going nowhere. I decided to take the first step, she probably knew everything I was willing to tell her anyway and if not, she needed the information. "What do you know about the fae?" I asked.

She made a face and then sat back in her chair, eyes and ears still alert, but she answered me, "I know the most about fairies since Eric does so much with them, but we've met some elves too. I was young during the recent fae war, but I've learned that two of the clans, water and sky fought and at the end the sky fairies won and closed the portal into this world, leaving behind all the trouble we've been dealing with ever since."

I nodded, "Right, so there are fairies with an affinity to water or the sky and there are fae with an affinity for the land. I'm a combination of sky and land although since the sky and water fairies have now joined together, I imagine that they're really one and the same now. But who really knows what's going on in Faery?" I deliberately left out any mention of fae with an affinity for fire, since Eric and I had decided to keep my true heritage a secret for now.

"So I'm guessing that the land fae and sky fairies don't get along," she said with a flat voice and I laughed sadly.

"Not in the least," I said.

"So which do you consider yourself to be?" she asked.

Another good question, "Both, I guess, but also neither. I don't belong with either group, since they hate each other so much," I said with a wave of my hand.

We sat quietly for a while, but I couldn't get anything from her since her mind was back on securing the area. She was certainly serious about her job. After she was confident that we were still alone, she relaxed again.

"What about you?" I asked.

She quickly glanced at me and then returned her eyes to scanning for dangers, "I'll tell you since Eric already knows. I'm a hybrid too," she finally answered.

I sat up again, staring at her, "I didn't know that was possible," I said. I knew that to create a were-panther, two full-blooded panthers had to mate for the first time, but beyond that, it was pretty confusing to me.

"I'm the exception, not the norm. My dad's a were-cheetah and my mom was a were-coyote, but it's the demon blood way back on my dad's side that makes me really unique here in the states." I gave her a wide-eyed look, so she continued. "There's a large population of demons in Africa, they played a big part in the indigenous shifter cultures there. Many African-based were lines have demon blood somewhere in the mix since their blood makes us stronger and more resilient while not affecting our ability to breed successfully reproducing shifters."

"I thought you were from the Long-Tooth Pack in Shreveport," I said, truly intrigued now.

"I am. Being part coyote, I'm happiest as part of a pack so when I moved here for this job, Eric set me up with Alcide's pack since he knew them best. I run with the local pack at the full moon, but I'm officially affiliated with the Long Tooth Pack."

"It's nice they don't care that you're not a wolf," I said, unable to avoid drawing a parallel between our situations.

She looked at me as she took a sip of her iced tea and she too knew what I was really saying. "Yeah, it is. Some of them don't like it, but they have to do what their pack master says."

That seemed to bring that part of the conversation to a close, so I rolled over and just enjoyed relaxing in this beautiful place. Following my initial pleasure at being here, I realized that it felt empty without Hunter and it no longer felt like home with Eric being so far away. It was a comfortable and familiar place to be, but my home was with Eric now, wherever he was.

I thought about all the times I sat out here dreaming of Eric, wondering what he was doing, how he was and I had to stop myself from popping back to him. We were together again, but spending my days here was part of the price I needed to pay for being with him in Louisiana. I would do it and treasure every minute we had together at night.

I registered that Sheila got up to wander along the wooded areas close to us twice and when I sat up to get a drink, she returned with something on her mind. I finished my drink and reached over to grab my backpack since I was getting hungry.

"Because I didn't want to kill you," I said, answering her unspoken question.

"What?" she said, on the alert again, scanning and listening.

I chuckled; I enjoyed playing with her, "You were wondering why I didn't use my powers against you when we were fighting the other night." I left it at that as I dug to find the cooler bag and smiled when I opened it and saw two turkey, walnut and cranberry wraps, two containers of almonds and two more with strawberries and blueberries. I tossed Sheila her food and a fork and began eating.

"You wouldn't have killed me," she said after swallowing a huge bite of the wrap.

"Really?" I answered skeptically.

"No, as you saw, I heal quickly."

I looked up at her, "Is that because you're a shifter or due to the demon blood?"

She smiled, obviously proud of her abilities, "Demon blood, I heal much faster than basic shifters."

I looked at her closely; her bruises and small cuts were already fading. I wouldn't tell her, but I was incredibly relieved that I hadn't actually hurt her. I didn't care if it made me weak or soft, I don't want to cause anyone, who didn't harbor true ill will toward me, any injury.

"Are you honestly telling me that you'd like for me to burn you? Because that's what I did to Will and James. I don't think you'd like it and I can't imagine that you'd heal as fast as they did." She shrugged and tilted her head slightly in acknowledgment of my words. "Yeah," I said, "I didn't think so."

She shot me a dirty look so I changed the topic slightly, "Do all demons heal quickly?" I asked. Sheila kept her eyes on the surroundings, searching for dangers, "Full and half-blooded demons can't be hurt in a fistfight. It takes a very skilled warrior with an exceptional weapon to take down someone with that much demon blood."

I shivered as I remembered very clearly the demon remains in my backyard, "I remember," I said quietly. Sheila's eyes were suddenly on me.

"You saw Gladiola get killed?" she asked and then tore her gaze from me to return to her scanning.

"After. How'd you know it was Gladiola I was thinking of?" I demanded.

She shrugged, "The Cataliades and Maimonides families are two of only a few demon clans in this country, and she's the only one who's been killed in the last fifty years or so. I just made a guess."

"Do you know Mr. Cataliades or Diantha?" I asked, trying to hide my interest in the lawyer. I'd been thinking it was time to contact him again.

"Not really, I grew up in Oklahoma as part of my Mom's coyote pack and never really explored my dad's side of the family until a few years ago."

"Are you related to the Cataliades family?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me. I knew demons mated with humans since Mr. Cataliades was a half-demon. Actually, I'd always just assumed that the other half was human, but now that I thought about it, he could have been part shifter or something else all together. If I'd learned anything being a telepath, it was that it was stupid to assume that anything was really what it appeared to be at first glance.

"Demons have been in Africa and breeding occasionally with shifters there for thousands of years. From what I hear, the Cataliades family has only been here for a hundred years or so, but I don't know where they came from originally. So I don't have a clue. Why are you so interested? How do you know them?"

"Sophie-Anne used Mr. Cataliades as her lawyer and I had to work with him a few times," I answered cryptically.

"Yeah, but I heard that he and Eric had a falling out when Eric took over as king. He uses a couple of different lawyers and occasionally demons from other states, but mostly it's that dirty little human that I don't trust, Glassport."

I groaned, "Don't trust him and don't be alone with him, he's got one of the most disturbing minds I've ever heard and no redeeming characteristics except perhaps that he values money and his life so Eric can manipulate him with threats and bribes."

She shot me an irritated look and rubbed a hand through her tawny hair, "Like I couldn't figure that one out on my own," she huffed.

"Do you know how to contact Mr. Cataliades?" I asked nonchalantly, but she glared at me quickly.

"No, and you'll have to talk to Eric about that before you do any more fishing. He doesn't trust Cataliades and he doesn't like people going around behind his back. I imagine that even pertains to his girlfriend," she said quickly. It was my turn to shoot her a 'no shit,' glare.

I needed to find out exactly what had happened between Mr. Cataliades and Eric and get Eric away from Glassport. Plus I needed a lawyer and I would only trust Mr. Cataliades for a specific part of my needs.

We were silent for a while. I let myself relax again, knowing that Sheila was alert and still reporting in to Eric and that I had my phone alarm set so that I would be back thirty minutes before sunset just like I was yesterday. I wasn't playing with that fire again.

Suddenly Sheila jumped out of her chair, pulled me off the ground and threw the backpack to me. She pulled a foot-long dagger from under the hem at the ankle of her jeans and held out her forearm to me. "Beam us home Sookie, someone's coming."

While she'd been preparing to defend us, I'd focused in and to my shock I realized that she was right; someone was coming. How in the hell had she heard the car before I even sensed the mind? She gave me another demanding look and waved her arm at me to spur me on, but I just shook my head at her. "It's just my best friend coming to take care of the plants. You can trust her."

"Oh yeah?" Sheila said skeptically, "And just what are you going to tell her? That you 'popped in for the day'? If you want to talk to her so much, then call her, don't be stupid and expose yourself this way."

She was right; I nodded at her and then gestured to the back door. We both ran to the lanai with me carrying our glasses and the remains of our lunch and she, her dagger. I put everything in the fridge since I didn't have the time to wash them or get them back into the bag and then pulled the door shut behind me. As I grabbed Sheila's tense arm, I heard Macey's tires coming closer on the asphalt. It was so hard for me to leave her, but this was the prudent choice. I'd call her soon.

I locked into Sheila's mind, gave her the visual image of Eric's office to focus on and she retained her defensive stance as we arrived. It seemed that having the destination in her mind helped her to retain her dignity after teleporting.

After surveying the room, she replaced her dagger and glared at me. "You're going to have to change the way you think, and fast. That kind of shit isn't going to work here."

I willed the shorts and shirt that I had in the bag onto my body, I wasn't in the mood to be scolded while in a bathing suit here in Eric's office. "Explain what you mean," I demanded.

She rolled her eyes, "Putting yourself at risk to see an old friend, which by the way puts her at risk too, teleporting to Hawaii without your cell phone or weapons, eating food that I provided without even asking where it came from."

"Listen, I know you think it's your job to whip me into shape," I began.

"It is," she confirmed and I sighed.

"Do you take weapons when you go up into your quarters here?"

She gave me a 'fuck you' glare, "No because I have an entire arsenal in there already," she spat at me.

"Well I lived in Hana for fifteen years without any problems." Of course I'd spent most of that time training and preparing to be attacked, but once I left and entered the real world again, finding danger at every footfall, I realized how safe I was in Hana.

"And by the way, I didn't forget my phone and weapons. I made a decision that they weren't necessary where I was going. Eric was asleep so he wouldn't be calling and I could just pop home if I needed to. Anyway, having physical weapons or a phone wouldn't have stopped what occurred from happening," I justified with my arms crossed defensively.

She continued to glare at me and gave a small irritated laugh, "You're a fool. Stop thinking with your heart and think with your brain, it'll make all of our jobs easier." She walked past me out of the room, but before the door shut, I heard her say, "I'll meet you upstairs tomorrow at the same time for a rematch."

As the door closed, I let my head fall back and groaned out loud. We'd made some headway today and I was hopeful that someday we might be able to enjoy more than irritate one another, but that day was pretty far off.

I was used to tough love from instructors and I could take it from her or anyone else, but I would like to find someone I could eventually call a friend here besides Pam and Eric. I enjoyed Sheila's honesty and her humor; I just hoped that we'd reach a point soon where they weren't so intensely directed at me.

I let myself into our quarters and stripped, leaving my clothes on the floor alongside Eric's. Why not join the party? Then I climbed into bed with him. He was exactly as I'd left him at dawn except that his hair was dry now. I squirmed under the covers, pulled his left arm out away from his body, threw my leg over his and pressed my trunk as close to him as I could get, resting my head on his shoulder.

From this angle, I was staring at his strong neck and his Adam's apple. I leaned over and kissed it, running my hand down his jaw to his other shoulder. Finding myself way too comfortable here with him, I closed my eyes and relaxed.

The next thing I knew, gentle touch, a cool breeze, barely notable brushed across my back. I knew I was safe, completely safe and loved. I rolled over, humming with contentment, and now the breeze was tickling my neck, hips and thighs. A cool gust of air ghosted across my ear, delivering soft chants of endearments and promises that were impossible to keep but wonderful to hear. Liquid warmth that had been building, intensified and I sighed as a cool blanket covered me lightly and gave me peaceful pleasures, but it was the slow yet intense orgasm pulsing through my body that woke me from my dream.

I opened my eyes to find that the blanket covering me was actually Eric's long body levitating above me so that he just barely touched me. The wind was his fingers and mouth gently caressing my skin. My eyes closed of their own accord when he slid himself into and onto me, capturing my lips with his own and nestling himself in as deeply as he could go.

He stayed there, removed his lips from mine and held me still with his body, and as soon as I opened my eyes, with his gaze as well. There was a depth of intensity and love in his eyes that had me holding so still that I didn't breathe for a few seconds. Then he stroked out and back in twice, breaking my trance before stopping again, lowered his brow to mine and then he continued his deep thrusts once again.

I loved when he was in this kind of mood. Well, actually, I loved most of his moods, but this one was rare and so I treasured it and him even more.

My second orgasm built slowly and was more diffuse than usual, centering deep within me, crashing through my entire body and completing its cycle at my heart. A tear escaped from my eye and rolled into my hairline and for once Eric didn't seem to even notice the pathway of the tear. Instead, his eyes never left mine as he reached his completion silently, which only seemed to intensify the significance of the act we were sharing.

His fingers traced my lips, my brow and my jaw, "You have no idea how much I love waking up with you by my side," he said in a whisper. "Even before I could move, I could smell you and feel your heart pounding in my chest. I felt your breath ticking my neck and your hot body wrapped around mine. Thank you."

"You're welcome," I said with a lazy grin, still completely blissed out by our loving.

He pulled his face back from mine and smiled down at me, "Good evening. How was your day?" Before I could answer, he sniffed me, "Mmm…you smell like sunshine…sea water…and" he moved his nose down my arm and then grimaced, "Sheila."

I laughed out loud, "That's your fault," I said waggling my forearm in front of his nose and he pinned my arms down and buried his face between my breasts. "That's better," he said with a muffled voice causing me to laugh again. My laughter changed into a shocked gasp as his fangs so very gently pierced my skin and his cool tongue lapped at the blood that pooled in the valley between my breasts.

I freed my hands and ran my fingers through his hair, holding his head to me until he finished and laid his head on my chest. He still wasn't taking enough blood from me and I knew that he'd have to supplement, but he seemed to be enjoying himself so I didn't worry about him.

"You look like a very contented cat," I said, smiling down at him.

He gave me a mock pout, "Why do you insult me? I am simply a vampire under the spell of your delectable blood."

I chuckled at him and then his words suddenly triggering a thought, "Oh, you might want to tell Will and James to avoid the training room until it's aired out again, Sheila and I tried to finish our contest from the other night and I'm sure it smells quite a bit."

Eric extricated himself from my breasts and stared at me, his pleasure now gone and concern apparent in his eyes. "You fought? And she drew your blood? What if she lost control? She's very strong," he said, his voice tighter than usual.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Eric, and yes she drew my blood, but I drew more of hers. And she wouldn't lose control, we could hardly get into the fight before her timer went off and she had to text you," I said, gesturing to his phone.

He ignored my sass, "I don't like you fighting her when I'm not there," he said and I had to refrain from rolling my eyes.

"Eric, this is part of my training and what I need to do to be a part of this team. Sheila and I are making progress; we actually had some fun today…sort of. I enjoyed sparring with her, and yes, we drew blood, but both of us are fine and we're ready to do it again tomorrow," I said, planting that seed while the garden was already turned up.

Eric frowned and reached for his phone on his bedside table. I put my hand over his, "Please don't tell her to go easy on me."

He shook his head, "No, you're right. I was going to take advantage of the situation upstairs. Did you clean up any drops of blood on the mats or elsewhere?" he asked.

I nodded, "Yes, but I'm sure it still smells."

He smiled and raised my eyebrows at him but he gestured for me to wait while he sent a text. When he put his phone down, he said, "I just sent Will and James upstairs so they can spend some time adapting to the scent of your blood."

"Oh, good idea," I said, relaxing back onto the bed. "Anyway, I know the real reason you don't want me fighting Sheila without you there is that it turns you on so much and you don't want to miss it," I said with a wicked smile.

"I am…busted," he said as he kissed me and rolled us so that I was on top of him. "Tomorrow I have told my Area sheriffs and other top cabinet members to join us here to meet you. I've decided, following the trouble we had with Will and James, that you need to meet them under very controlled circumstances. That means that tonight is our final night with this building all to ourselves."

I was sad to hear that rather than having two nights, we only had one, but there was nothing I could do but make the most of the time we had.

"We'll continue our tour of the building including the underground passageways once all the humans are gone and then we'll travel with Maeve to my home just outside of New Orleans and have her ward it." He ran a finger over my shoulder and down my arm so I shivered.

"My hope is that once you see it, you will consent to live there with me. It is my most secure home and…"

I quieted him with my lips on his, "My home is with you Eric. Wherever you are is where I want to be," I said with my lips brushing against his.

He smiled sweetly up at me and I kissed the crinkles at the edges of each of his eyes. "Speaking of homes," I said, "there are two things I need to do in regards to Hana." I sat up and reached over to get Eric's phone, entered the information I wanted him to have and then gave it to him. He flipped though his screens trying to figure out what I'd changed. I knew he'd found it when he frowned at the screen.

"You've given me the names of two tour guide companies in Hawaii?" he asked and I smiled. "I didn't want it under their names and I thought that if anyone got their hands on your phone, this wouldn't stand out too much. Those numbers will connect you with my closest friends in Hana. Just in case you need to reach anyone there who knows me.

Use the safe word, "pineapple," and they'll know they can trust you." I'd discussed safe words with Macey, Larry and Pua before just in case someone had come looking for information about Hunter and I, so they would know that they could trust him if he used this word.

"Macey, Larry and Pua," Eric said slowly and I nodded. "That's all? Those are your only friends there?"

Ouch, that stung a little, "No, I have others, but these three and Macey's kids are the only ones who know of my connection to the supernatural world. They were the ones in the vault the night you came to Hana." I said quietly.

Eric nodded, reached up and cupped my cheek with his large hand, "Thank you Sookie. I will only use these numbers if I have no other choice."

I nuzzled my face into his hand, "I do want you to meet them, but this just isn't the right time," I said, kissing his palm and hating that I was agreeing with Sheila once again.

"No," he agreed. "Now what is the other thing relating to homes that you wish to discuss with me?"

Ah, this one would be more complex. "I have a number of things that I need to do in regards to my life in Hana. The most important ones have to do with my home and the Foundations I developed and I need a lawyer to assist me. I have my own lawyer back in Hana, but I'd like to develop a relationship with one here too."

"That's easy, I have three lawyers on my payroll at all times, you can take your pick," he said with a wave of his hand.

I wet my lips, "That's good for those things, but I also need help setting up some trust funds for Jason's kids and for that, I already know who I want to use. Eric, I want Mr. Cataliades to help me," I said firmly, looking deep into his eyes.

"No," he said, sitting up and setting me on the bed facing him. "No, Sookie. I don't trust him." I knew this would be his response so I was ready for it.

"Were you aware that I'm the one who identified Jade Flower as the one who killed Gladiola? Or that both Mr. Cataliades and Diantha would have died in Rhodes if I hadn't alerted them about the bomb?" Eric shook his head to the first question and nodded at the second. "Mr. Cataliades himself told me that he owed me, Eric. I doubt demons say that lightly."

Eric was thoughtful and I gave him time, but when that time spilled over into fifteen minutes I interrupted his thoughts. "What happened Eric? You used to trust him, at least as a lawyer. What happened that would make you trust Glassport more than him?"

He picked up a lock of my hair and wound it around his finger as he spoke, "When you were killed," he shrugged his shoulder, "Cataliades came to me to finish the paperwork which would formally create my alliance with Freyda. When that was completed, he provided me with your Will." He took an unnecessary breath and then continued; "He is a good and capable lawyer because he keeps himself emotionally detached from his dealings, however, his attitude and demeanor changed significantly toward me when the topic shifted to you. I sensed during those few minutes that he blamed me for your death. I still believe that I was right, for I had never seen him be anything but calm and relaxed no matter what the situation, until that moment.

"He liked and admired you Sookie. I knew that if he blamed me for your death, then he would be a terrible enemy to have. So I cut off all dealings with him and found other capable lawyers to work with instead of him. I chose Glassport to defend me at the trial because he had experience with Sophie Anne's trial and he is ruthless and easy to control."

I thought through what he told me and it didn't make sense. Mr. Cataliades had known that I was alive and well. Why would he be angry with Eric? Then it hit me. I remembered our conversation when I was asking him for help with getting away from Bon Temps and the supernatural world altogether. Mr. Cataliades had said that he'd been waiting for Eric to act on his own in order to keep me safe. He'd finally run out of time and had contacted me to…do what? I'd never found out what he would have suggested since I was so focused on running away. Well, that was water under the bridge.

But if I hadn't been so overwhelmed with my own emotions I might have caught onto his irritation with Eric. But surely he couldn't still be upset now.

"Do me one favor regarding this, Eric. Call him. Don't say anything about me, I just want to hear what he has to say to you. I still trust him and I won't trust anyone else with this information I have about Jason's kids."

Eric thought through my request and then got up to go to his office, leading me by the hand. He stopped briefly to warm a bag of blood on the way. As the blood was heating, we continued to the office where he activated his computer and pulled up Mr. Cataliades' number.

The microwave beeped and I went to get the blood and an empty glass for him. When I returned, he had just finished dialing the number and was waiting for Mr. Cataliades to answer. At my gesture, he put the phone on speaker and set it on the desk. I mouthed 'Thank you,' to him and sat in one of the deep leather chairs in front of his desk.

The phone rang three times before Mr. Cataliades answered, "Your Majesty. I was about to contact you myself."

Eric's jaw tightened, "Regarding?"

"I am aware that Miss. Stackhouse is currently staying with you. Both of you are in need of some information I have. I would appreciate it if you would facilitate a meeting in the very near future."

My mouth dropped open. It didn't bother me so much that he knew I was here, but the fact that he was eager to tell us something was not a good omen. I took a quiet breath to speak, but Eric held up his finer to silence me. I could see comprehension darkening his eyes and setting his jaw and I hoped he could control his growing anger.

"You can imagine that I am unhappy that anyone knows of her whereabouts, and that you have apparently known where she has been for some time. However, she is here with me now and she is well, so your participation in her disappearance has had a happy ending so far. What is it that you need to discuss with us now?"

"Nothing I can reveal over the phone, but I am in town and can meet you both at your headquarters within the hour."

Eric glared at the phone but maintained his cool. "The underground entrance has not changed. Meet my guards at the elevator marked 'Four.' Be aware that our building is being watched by fairies so bring whatever weapons you require, but be prepared to leave them in the underground area."

"Very well," Mr. Cataliades replied. "I will arrive in twenty minutes."

Eric ended the call and looked at me with an expressionless face. "So it was Cataliades who you turned to for help," he said and I nodded. We had hashed and re-hashed this so many times that this information was not as much of a blow as it could have been and thankfully, Eric was able to let it go.

"What do you think he wants to tell us?" he asked and I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't have a clue. I don't know how he knows I'm here either."

"We don't have long until we find out, let's get ready. I'll inform James and Will of our visitor while you shower and get dressed," he said and I hurried off to the bathroom.

When I came out of the bathroom, Eric was dressed all in black with tight pants, and an even tighter sleeveless shirt, heavy boots, a thick belt with a wide silver buckle. He had his hair pulled tightly back at the nape of his neck and wore a ring I'd never seen on his right index finger. His choice of clothing made him look larger and more severe than usual and I knew he wanted to present an intimidating front.

Pam was present too, looking demure in her below the knee gold-colored skirt and dark green sweater. She was the perfect study of first impressions leading to the wrong conclusions since she looked like a young woman going out for tea when I knew just how deadly she really was.

Eric was the opposite, dressed to look menacing and he did, especially when he removed a long thin Japanese sword called a katana from its koshirae stand and slid it into its black leather shirasaya or scabbard. He caught my eye, "It's the best weapon for fighting demons; quick, strong and very good at slicing." I remembered far too well that Jade Flower had thought so too.

I didn't think it would matter how Eric dressed since Mr. Cataliades always seemed so comfortable and confident around all supernaturals. So I had a hard time believing that anything Eric did would intimidate him, but it was what Eric needed to do, so I just appreciated the view.

"Will and James are on their way down to meet him now. I'm sorry our night has been thrown off course, but this shouldn't take long," he said as I rushed out of the room to my closet and picked out one of Miriam's outfits. I chose a charcoal colored thigh length skirt with triangular horizontal patterns in black that hid the usual dagger and stake and matched it with a sweater of muted purple, red, blue and brown stripes and checked to make sure the iron chain was present in the hem.

Satisfied, I ran my fingers through my hair and slipped on a pair of flats that had good gripping soles and a strap at the ankle to secure it to my foot. I turned to Eric and he gave me a small smile and held out his hand to me, gesturing back to his office.

"We'll be meeting him in one of the smaller rooms," he said as he led me into the corridor between our quarters and the various meeting rooms. We passed two doors and entered through the third. Pam was already waiting there.

This room was the smallest and most severe we'd seen and had a rectangular table in the middle that was about eight feet long and six feet wide and had six chairs, three at each end. It was clearly a table designed for parties that didn't trust each other very much since it would be hard to pass papers from one side to the other much less attack without warning. The walls were painted a rich brown and the table and chairs were a warm reddish brown. So despite the lack of any other decorations besides some simple recessed lights in the ceiling, I felt comfortable in this room. Eric's designer was very good at setting a mood.

"He'll enter through the elevator," Eric said, pointing out the discrete entrance to the elevator at the far side of the room where Pam was standing. "I want you to stay on the opposite side of the table from him at all times," he said, "and don't touch him at any point. I still don't trust his motives for coming here."

I nodded and tossed out my mental net, listening for his arrival. I found James and Will directly below us, both on alert, both armed and both…hungry. They were hungry from being upstairs with my scent. Fuck. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to work on desensitizing them tonight. Of course the last thing they would want to drink would be a demon so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I paced the room, listening and at Eric's insistence, I opened my mind to him so he could follow what was happening below. Pam glared at us so I included her in the loop as well. We all froze as we felt another mind arrive, quickly, very quickly moving toward Will and James. The thoughts were veiled but it had to be Mr. Cataliades.

He was nearing the two vampires when at least seven more minds popped into the area and all hell broke loose.


	38. Chapter 38

A/N: Here we go. This chapter really locks me into the ending I've been playing with for a long time. Until now it was just a possibility, but I'm committing to it now. Gulp. It'll just take me some time to get there...

Thanks for all the support via reviews, fav's and alerts. You all seriously made my day after I posted the last chapter when the reviews rolled in. It was lots of fun to hear from you all. Thanks to Charhamblin my beta!

As we all know, CH owns SVM.

-0-0-0

Chapter 38

Tempest

S~

"Eric!" I shouted, "Fairies!" I wasn't being Captain Obvious here, for although I couldn't read the new minds, I certainly recognized the mental signature. Eric and Pam, never having heard it before wouldn't have a clue what they were or weren't hearing. Then, in my shock at the war being waged below us, my connection to Pam and Eric snapped and they both glared at me furiously with fangs fully extended at me for cutting off their view of the battle.

Eric grabbed me by the arms and held me tightly, but he was looking at Pam who had already pulled her dagger from her skirt, "Go get better weapons and wait for me on the first floor," he ordered. She smiled viciously and was gone before he finished speaking. Then he looked at me with his eyes burning into mine. I could see the conflict that was brewing in his mind in his every expression and I didn't miss it when he came to his conclusion.

"You won't stay here if I ask you to, will you?" he asked me, but he already knew the answer to his question.

I shook my head, "No." I said firmly, already feeling my powers begin to surge within me.

His lips set in a serious line, but his eyes were sparkling with the anticipation of a fight. He couldn't help it. No matter how worried he was, he simply loved a battle, it was in his blood.

He nodded, "Then go upstairs and get your armor and iron weapons and join me for battle," he said with a passionate voice and flashing eyes. He was more beautiful and powerful that usual and he took my breath away.

He pulled me in for a fast and hard kiss and before I knew it, he was stepping into the elevator. Clearly he was aware that there was nothing he could do to stop me from fighting alongside him and he wasn't willing to waste a minute arguing a lost battle with me when his friends were in peril.

I wanted him to wait for me to go down with him, but was grateful for him trusting me and so I would trust him to be safe too. Thus, I kept my mouth closed and before the door slid shut all the way, I teleported to the training room where I found Sheila deep in some Pilates exercises.

"Fairies are attacking in the underground area!" I yelled as I 'quick stripped' and willed on my armor, grabbed my mismatched helmet and stuffed it onto my head after bundling up my hair up as best I could in a rush. I mentally kicked myself for not taking the time during the day to make a better fitting helmet while in Hana. This one would have to do and it had held up fine so far, so I really shouldn't complain about it.

I was reaching for my favorite iron sword when my legs were kicked out from beneath me. I landed flat on my chest with Sheila on top of me, wrenching one of my arms painfully behind me.

"Get off me! We have to go help!" I screamed, kicking and bucking to get her to release me.

"No! Eric would want you to stay here. You'll only make things worse if you go down there," she swore as I arched up and hit her face with the back of my helmet.

"Let me go! He knows I'm coming!" I screamed at her.

"Bullshit," she grunted through the effort of holding onto me, "He won't even let you train with Will anymore. He'd never allow you into a battle with fairies! Stay put!"

That was not going to happen.

I teleported out from under Sheila to directly above her and allowed my weight to fall on her and I pinned her to the ground. I'd love to leave her behind, but we needed all the help we could get and she was an excellent fighter, so I tried again. "Listen to this you rabid bitch!" I growled into her ear and gave her my memory of Eric telling me to go upstairs and then meet him for the battle.

She stilled beneath me, "Huh. Sorry, I…"

"Shut up, just shut your trap and get the fuck ready. I'm leaving in thirty seconds," I said as I pushed myself off her, grabbed the sword and ripped the thin iron chain from the hem of my discarded sweater.

I then teleported a few feet away and picked up a weapons belt that I had outfitted with two throwing stars and two daggers, one of each in silver and iron. I clipped the belt around my waist and then looped the chain through the belt and secured it against my body.

There wasn't time to change out the silver weapons because Sheila was rushing toward me carrying one sword in her hand and another in a sling on her back. I gave her a steady look and she nodded at me. We were ready.

I teleported to the underground area I'd seen in Will's mind, remembering to pass the image along to Sheila and to my relief, she handled the transition perfectly. The minute we arrived, she was off running into the fray.

Since no one seemed to notice our arrival, I took a few seconds to look over the situation and assess my readiness to fight. My body was ready for war, my mind was completely focused and I took a deep breath to center my powers. In anticipation of using fire, I willed the armor back from my palms, but kept the backs of my hands and wrists covered securely.

I'd originally counted eight fairy minds, but now could only find six. Two fairies with claymores were attacking Mr. Cataliades who had a broadsword in one hand and was apparently trying to touch the fairies with the other.

Eric was also fighting two fairies and Will and James were each deeply involved with their own battles but kept trying to draw attention away from Eric. Sheila entered the fight and began to engage Eric's second fairy. I saw a body crumpled on the ground near Mr. Cataliades and some of the other fairies had varied injuries. Will had obviously been injured around his hip at some point, but had already healed.

What worried me the most was that the vampires were all clearly struggling against the draw of the fairy blood and the fairies knew it and were using it to their advantage. Any fairy who was bleeding took every opportunity he had to increase the blood flow and even flick some at the vampires. Eric was holding up relatively well, he'd fought fairies within the last two decades, but Will and James were desperate to sink their teeth into anything they could and this made them sloppy. Will wasn't using his invisibility to gain an upper hand and James was caught up in the fun of the pursuit of such a tasty snack.

Mr. Cataliades was holding his own well enough and thankfully Sheila had managed to lure the second fairy away from Eric. I couldn't sense the eighth attacker or spot Pam, so I popped right behind the fairy Eric was fighting, touched his upper back and used a moderate level of power on him.

The fairy fell to the ground roaring in pain and I ducked to quickly wind the iron chain around his wrists. At that very moment, the fairy fighting James sliced the vampire's side deeply, took one look at me and yelled, "Scrios!" Eric lunged toward him, took off his head with one slice of his sword and tucked me behind himself with a fast swipe of his arm.

I turned my back to Eric, taking a defensive posture and watched as Will dispatched his fairy with a sickening snap of his neck after an injured James ran him through from behind with his sword. They were both about to drink from the fairy when Eric growled deeply and gestured to the ongoing fights.

There were only three fairies left standing. Sheila was holding her own with her fairy but had sustained an injury to her left shoulder. I was about to go back her up when Will dropped the body he was embracing, turned and joined her fight. Seeing an opening, I teleported closer to Mr. Cataliades and aimed my iron throwing star directly at the fairy who reminded me of Lochlan. The star sunk deeply into his back and he crumpled to the ground without a sound.

The other fairy, who had been fighting Mr. Cataliades, looked at me longingly and then teleported away. I glanced around and saw that Sheila and Will had taken down their own fairy. The fight had only lasted a few minutes, no more than three, and now we were all left standing, scanning for more attackers. Eric was at my side in a split-second and Will, Sheila and James, who had already healed, positioned themselves around Eric and I. Mr. Cataliades was kept to the outside, still begin treated as a person of suspicious intent. We waited, the vampires and Sheila using their strongest senses and I, mine, to find any more attackers, but we found none.

After about two minutes, Eric nodded and we all moved toward the one remaining fairy. Only Sheila stood apart, still on guard, her eyes flickering around the concrete tunnels and vestibule. Will and James stood on either side of Eric and I but they couldn't move any further away from the fairy, their desire was too strong, especially now that the immediate danger had passed.

As we gathered, Pam sped out of the elevator, glaring at Eric and brandishing a sword and a dagger. The look on her face made it clear that Eric had forbidden her to join the fight until he deemed it safe. A wave of relief rolled through me that he couldn't control me that way. She must be furious, I sure as hell would be.

I looked down at the fairy and then back up at Pam's clenched jaw as she adapted to the delicious scents around her. I hated seeing the results of my power, especially on someone who couldn't heal as fast as a vampire. Fairies healed quickly, but not in a matter of minutes. He was in a lot of pain and I could hardly get myself to look back down at him since the sides of his neck and his wrists were horribly bloodied and raw.

All four vampire's eyes dilated and I could see James slipping into bloodlust. I couldn't blame him, he'd been injured so his need was greatest. Luckily Eric, Pam and Will were better controlled, but all of the vampires crowded in close to the injured fairy and their desire was very palpable. I sure didn't envy that fairy right now.

The fairy, who had shoulder length, curly dark brown hair and yellow-green eyes withdrew from the vampires and his eyes kept flickering to mine as though he were asking me for help. Why in the hell would he do that when I had just two minutes ago burned him and bound him in iron?

James inched even closer, a blissful and terrifying smile on his usually relaxed face._ 'James,'_ I thought at him, feeling strangely protective of this fairy. He looked at me through glassy eyes. _'Please don't bite him. We can't have you compromised right now and he might be poisoned,'_ I reasoned with him, using any argument I could think of to keep him from draining the injured fairy when his need for blood was so great. He blinked his dark eyes a few times and then nodded at me before looking wistfully at the injured fairy.

What I didn't tell James was that I didn't know if I could handle seeing an extended family member being drained by a vampire no matter what he'd just done. Having to kill to defend ourselves was horrible enough; I just couldn't stand the idea of killing him when he was so helpless. I simply couldn't stomach that type of violence.

Speaking of violence, Eric knelt down on one knee, grabbed the fairy by his neck and squeezed brutally. "Why did you attack us?" he growled, baring his fangs at the fairy. I pulled my helmet off and tucked it under my free arm so I could look the man straight in his eyes without obstructions. Crazy enough, it felt rude to keep it on while he was being hurt, since I felt like I was hiding. It was sort of like wearing a ball cap to church or talking to someone while chewing gum or wearing dark sunglasses, it just wasn't right.

The fairy didn't answer Eric. Instead he looked at me through wide round eyes, "Sookie," he said in a weak voice, speaking to me and using my name like he actually knew me, "We've been waiting for you. Come home to your kin. The Prince wants to see you again."

What in the world? Eric growled and dug his fingers deeper into the fairy's bloody neck and that's when it happened. I sensed two more fairy minds appear directly behind me and as I turned to defend myself, I heard Sheila's warning yell and then felt a heavy blow strike me across my neck, catching the top edge of my armor. A deep, sharp pain in the skin and muscle of my left upper neck followed the blow, but I was so filled with adrenaline that I hardly felt it.

I sensed the vampires moving around me and heard an uproar, but I wasn't processing that kind of information at the moment. I was already reacting. Without thought, I swung my sword around as I was tumbling to the side from the blow. My blade caught the first fairy across the thighs in a deep slice and as he began to stumble toward the ground I turned to the other fairy. He lunged at me and tried to grab me around the waist with, I'm sure, every intention of teleporting away with me. I would not be going anywhere with him or anyone else.

Since he was leading with his hands rather than his sword, I moved toward him rather than away, ignoring Eric's frantic yells from behind me. I tried to use my left arm, but it was sluggish, so I dropped my sword and raised my right hand. In that brief moment of time, the fairy had gotten uncomfortably close. I pressed every ounce of power I had into him and with one touch of my fingertip to the back of his splayed hand, he dissolved in a cloud of fairy dust.

I blinked and saw Sheila's bloody sword sticking out right where the center of my attacker's back had been. I met her eyes and at that moment I didn't care if she was a raw bitch, I knew I was lucky to have her on my side. That one glance was all it took for her to tell me that she was finally convinced that I was worthy of being part of her pack here at Eric's headquarters.

Before the dust began to settle, Eric's familiar arms surrounded me from behind, one around my waist and the other across my chest, with a hand cupping my chin and right cheek. I hissed as he tilted my head to the right and began to carefully lick the blood away so he could more fully assess my injury. His nursing hurt more than the original injury had and I was about to bat him away when I looked down at my shoulder without moving my head and saw the copious amount of blood that had already come from the wound in the three or four seconds since I had received it. I felt dizzy for a split second but I think it was more from the realization of what had almost happened more than the blood loss.

I tried to clear my head and then paid better attention to my body and felt the deep wound healing naturally from the inside out. I relaxed as much as I could and allowed him to tend to me, but had to close my mind to him while keeping it open to search for danger so I could protect myself from his incredibly loud and concerned thoughts. On top of his worry for me was an overwhelming anger at himself, James and Will for allowing themselves to be distracted by the fairy blood.

I didn't blame them. This was their nature. They couldn't help the fact that they were drawn to fairy blood anymore than I could help that I needed the sun and earth or food and water. Those needs and cravings were simply part of who we are. Next time...crap. I couldn't believe I was already preparing for a next time. Hopefully there wouldn't be a next time, but if there were, they would all be stronger and better able to resist the scent than they were this time.

After a minute, I felt the wound fully close and I gently removed myself from Eric's desperate embrace and rounded on the fairy who'd struck me with his sword. I was still stiff and in pain so I knew that I had to avoid any immediate emotional contact with Eric. If I even looked at him, I was sure that we'd both loose it. I'd succumb to my pain and fear and Eric to his anger, and the fairies would die before I got my answers.

Eric and Pam joined me in front of the fairies, but this time, Will and James stood with Sheila on the outskirts of our little group, tearing themselves away from the all consuming allure of the fairies and now my own sera fae blood. I was grateful that they'd had some time earlier in the evening to begin adapting to the scent of my blood since I could certainly have much bigger problems than I already had.

The new fairy was much the worse for wear, as he was not just dealing with the wounds I'd given him, but he was also missing his right hand and had an iron dagger lodged in his left shoulder. Since Pam was looking much happier and was holding his bloody sword instead of her dagger, I assumed that she'd disarmed him during the few seconds that I was distracted.

I recognized him right away as the fairy with long straight, dark hair who I'd seen at the airfield with Hunter as we'd fled Oakland. He'd seen Hunter. He was the only fairy who could identify him on sight as my companion from that night. I could eliminate this risk right here and now. I should. My instincts and all my training with the Britlingens and the vampires told me to do so but as I looked into his angry bright green eyes, I couldn't summon the strength nor the courage to kill him in cold blood.

Pam and Eric were deferring to me, allowing me to make the choice of how to act when what I desperately wanted was to have them take over so I didn't have to make this decision.

I delayed, "He," I said, gesturing to the curly haired fairy I'd burned, "just told me to come 'home' with him, that my great-grandfather wants to see me. If that's what your Prince wants, why did you try to kill me?" I demanded of the fairy whose blood was dripping from his thighs and the stump at the end of his arm onto the concrete beneath him.

Neither of the fairies showed any surprise at hearing that I was of Niall's bloodline. So that, combined with the first fairy using my name, confirmed that Eric had been right in his suspicions. Niall had been aware that I was alive and he'd probably known from the very beginning that I would eventually become sera fae if I survived long enough.

My heart twisted painfully, but I shut down my emotions, leaving this information to be studied further at another time.

The new fairy sat tall on the concrete and spoke directly to me, "I was born to protect my people. You are scrios. You fight alongside demons and vampires. I don't care if you are of the Prince's line. You will never give us what we want, so you are more valuable to me dead."

"What do you want from me?" I demanded.

He smiled wickedly, "I want to bring your head to my Prince and prove to him my worth and devotion to my people."

Eric had heard enough and the fairy's beautiful head was flying through the air the second after he said his final word.

I was disgusted that my main emotion upon seeing his gruesome death was relief. I was relieved that he took the image of Hunter with him to the Summerlands, I was relieved that I hadn't had to kill him myself, but most of all, I was relieved that I hadn't had to make the decision I knew had to be made. I was a coward. And this coward was very lucky to be surrounded by others who didn't have the same emotional weaknesses I had.

We turned on the remaining fairy who was now splattered with blood that didn't belong to him. He shook his head, looking directly at me again. "Kill me if you must, but know that the Prince instructed me personally to preserve your life so he could see once more the great-granddaughter he values so much."

Eric growled and swung back his bloody sword again, but I stilled his arm with a gentle touch to his shoulder. _'Let's use him as a messenger,'_ I thought at him. He lowered his sword and nodded at me so I turned back to the fairy. "We will spare you because I value life and because I need someone to take a message to Niall."

His yellowish eyes widened, "I knew you were too kind to do otherwise," he said as he looked at me expectantly.

"Don't bet on it," I said in a flat voice, and then I continued, "Tell your Prince that despite pressures to do otherwise, I plan to not take sides in the conflicts between the scrios and the fairies. But if we are attacked again, let him know that I will no longer be passive; I will actively engage the fairies. So if he 'values' me as you claim, he will leave me and mine alone and I will do the same for him. If he wishes to speak to me, he can contact me through Eric. And if he wants something from me as that one said," I gestured to the headless body that was quickly turning to dust next to him, "he can contact my King and barter civilly just like everyone else does."

The fairy nodded and had a look of hope in his eyes that I figured was just relief that he was going to be released. I gestured to Pam, who unwound the chain from the fairies wrists and we all took defensive postures as the last of the iron was removed from his bleeding skin. He grimaced, stood cautiously then nodded to me and popped away.

I let my arms fall to my side, I felt completely gutted. Eric gathered me up in his arms and held me firmly to his chest. He was covered in blood but much of it was mine and I didn't have the strength to present a strong front anymore, so I welcomed his comfort.

Mr. Cataliades, who had been on the sidelines since his fairy popped away, took a step closer to me, but was stopped by Will and his sword. "Will, please take our guest up to the meeting room. Sookie and I will join you shortly," Eric said without taking his concerned eyes off me. "James, throw Clorox on this blood," he said, pointing to my blood on the concrete, "and Pam, help Sheila with her injury as soon as James has finished here." Both women looked less than enthusiastic, but waited, protecting James as he rushed off to gather the Clorox from a nearby closet. Will and Mr. Cataliades entered the elevator to go to the room where they would wait for us.

I looked around at the bodies slowly turning into piles of fairy dust, and my walls began to crack. I put my arms around Eric and took us up to our bedroom, but once there; I released him, dropped my sword and weapons belt and walked across the room.

"I need a shower," I said without looking at him and I walked into the bathroom, leaving the door open behind me.

Once I was in the shower and under the warm spray, I allowed my bloody armor to slowly fall away literally and figuratively. I stood and watched as the tiny flecks were washed down the drain and I wondered what would happen to the fairy dust. Would someone wash it away as I had Murry's in my backyard or would it just dissipate on its own, picked up in the tiny currents of air that passed through that area?

I stood in the warm shower, staring at the smooth wet wall and allowed myself to explore my emotions. I was surprised to find that what was coming through the cracked walls of my defenses was anger rather than the grief I'd expected.

"Sookie, tell me what you're thinking," Eric said and my eyes snapped to him. I hadn't even heard him come in, but there he was, standing under his own showerhead. The water diluted the blood that covered his face, hands, chest and right arm so there were pink streaks running down his pale body and making swirling patterns in the water at his feet before running into the drain.

That's all the fairies were now, dust and blood. "I'm furious with Niall," I said. "I can't stop thinking about everything he's thrown away, not just with this evening, but ever since he entered my life," I seethed as I shook with rage and probably a bit of shock.

"The loss from this night alone is tremendous," I said, raising my hands in the air in a helpless gesture. "Seven fairies are dead and before tonight, Claudine and her unborn child were lost and Trey and Clancy both died trying to protect me from Niall's enemies." Eric grimaced when I mentioned Clancy, but I just kept ranting. "How many others has Niall sacrificed in his pursuit of myself or another sera fae? And why in the hell does it seem that I'm more concerned about the welfare of the fairies than their own Prince is?"

Eric stood quietly in the water, just listening; not trying to offer solutions because we both knew that there weren't any.

"Seriously," I continued, "what real risk did I pose to him?" I gestured to myself. "Most of the fairies are supposed to be back in Faery anyway. Niall left the others behind, why does he care about what happens in this world? I understand now why the sera fae hate the fairies and I can see how this war has continued for so long." I threaded my fingers through the roots of my hair and pulled, "If they had hurt you, I would have hunted them down for the rest of my life. Niall had better back off or he's going to regret it. Why is he so foolish? He's just kicking a sleeping giant by attacking us. It doesn't make sense. I wasn't a risk to them," I said with frustration and anger coloring the town of my voice.

Eric finally spoke, "It is their way Sookie, you may never be able to understand it because you straddle both worlds."

"Damn right I don't understand it," I said vehemently. "But really, what could possibly be worth that kind of risk to a dying race, Eric? At least seven strong males and a breeding female have been lost. Why? It doesn't make sense to me. If they're after me because of what I am, why did they attack Mr. Cataliades? Or were they after Will and James, hoping to weaken our defenses and draw me out?"

"They were after the lawyer, first and foremost. When I arrived, James and Will were trying to deflect the fairies' attention away from Cataliades. It wasn't until I arrived that the focus of their attack deviated to include me," he said clinically.

"So what you mean is that they wanted Mr. Cataliades dead first and you second. They didn't care about Will and James," I concluded through a tight jaw.

Eric nodded and I struck the wall of the shower with the heel of my hand and released a scream of rage at the thought of Niall wanting to kill Eric.

"That was their priority level until it changed once again when you arrived," Eric said, giving me a thoughtful look. I brushed off his comment. It wasn't a surprise the fairies were after me, that was old news. "What I find interesting is the complete lack of continuity of their behavior once you arrived," Eric continued.

"Well, fairies can't lie, but they sure are proficient at misdirection as I'm sure you know. So the angry one really wanted to bring my head to Niall."

"However," Eric interjected, "his words conflicted with the story the other one tried to feed you about Niall wanting to see you and valuing you."

"Yes," I said with a dark laugh, "I'm sure he does value me; just not in the way I would have wanted. I bet that Niall wants to see me so he can kill me, and he values me as one more dead sera fae. Wanting to see me and valuing me does not equal love, even if he kills me regretfully."

Eric's face darkened at my words. "I agree with you, however, I got the distinct impression that the fairy who struck you was acting on his own and the one you burned was following Niall's direct orders. I think Niall wants you alive," he said with narrowed eyes.

"What does it matter?" I said emotionally, "He wants me dead either way. How could he value me or want anything else from me when he didn't even value his pregnant granddaughter?" I asked and I found that I was actually angrier with him for her loss than for his betrayal of me.

Eric growled and his fangs ran out at my words.

"I'm an idiot. You warned me about Niall, but I didn't want to believe it. No, I didn't believe it. I knew it was a strong possibility this would happen, but I still loved him, or at least I'd loved the idea of him, but now…"

Anger burned in me and tears of disappointment and rage filled my eyes as I opened my mind to search for any more fairies in the area. I wasn't unhinged enough that I would go out to attack them as a way of getting back at Niall, but I just wanted to see if he had already sentenced others to their deaths. I didn't find anything and I had to take a few deep breaths to ensure that I didn't lose control.

I felt Eric cautiously touch my tense arms and slowly turn me around to face him. His hands were cooler than usual on my flushed face, and I closed my eyes as the gentle touch of his fingers and lips released even more of my tension. It was amazing how he, by his very nature and his actions, was such a balm to my anger.

"Sookie, open your mind to me," he said in a whisper, his lips ghosting over my ear and his wet hair joining with mine on my shoulder.

I froze and looked up at him, "Why? You don't need this. It's bad enough I have to suffer from Niall's betrayal. I don't want you to feel it too, one of us has to be strong and level headed."

Eric placed both of his large hands on either side of my face and held me firmly and I felt pressure in my mind that I naturally recoiled from. "Open your mind to me Sookie. I want to help you."

His sincerity and love cascaded down on me and I felt my remaining anger melt, allowing the grief to bubble up from beneath the anger. It turns out that my rage had simply hidden the grief like a thick layer of ice hides the life in a lake in the dead of winter.

Eric scooped me up, sat on the shower seat and placed me on his lap while he held me in his arms as I cried, rocking me and rubbing my back, whispering loving words and endearments. I accepted his comfort and placed my head on his chest as I blubbered to him about my regrets for the loss of life, my fears and my betrayed heart.

He let me fuss for a few minutes before he asked again for me to open my mind. This time I complied. I lowered my shields and immediately felt Eric's mind reach into mine and because I was in an emotionally fragile mood already, the feeling was alarming and I tried to pull back a little. Eric's hands held me in place and slowly I felt him share with me his strength and the intensity of his love. At that moment, like so many others, he was my lifeline, my hope, my heart. I loved this man so very much.

His struggle as he accepted my emotions was notable only by a slight tightening of his face and then he made sure he had my full attention as he took those emotions and enclosed them in a vault in his mind. He showed me again and again, his strategies for compartmentalizing emotions and thoughts he couldn't deal with at particular times. Then he walked me through it as I tried to do it myself.

Through his thoughts and guidance, I learned how he was able to take what he needed from people and throw away all the rest. I also learned how he maintained the laser sharp focus he used for ensuring his own survival.

These were all parts of him that I knew well, but had never understood, and that I was unsure I would ever be able to emulate. I used to think that I wouldn't want to be able to turn off my emotions, but now I knew it was imperative that I learned how to do so. I wouldn't have to do it all the time, but probably more often than I'd want to admit. I knew it was important, I just didn't think I would be up to the task. I was so driven by emotion because of who and what I am.

He assured me that these defenses had taken a millennium to develop and that they still had some kinks. To prove this point, he showed me his few remaining weaknesses - myself, Pam and his first child, Emelina, now known as Emily, of whom he had never spoken to me before.

After a while of practicing these strategies with him, I realized that I had calmed down. Eric was, of course, aware of this, but his hands and mind continued to soothe me.

I pressed my face into the comfort of his chest, "This shouldn't have surprised me," I said, "you gave me time to prepare myself for this."

He kissed the top of my head, "No, you shouldn't be surprised, but you do have a right to grieve," Eric said soothingly.

I was grateful for his words, which acknowledged what I had lost. Not only had I lost a great grandfather and gained a mortal enemy, I'd also lost my entire extended fairy family including Claude and Dermot, if they were still alive. With Niall's propensity for killing off his own kind through his actions, even his own direct descendants, the odds weren't good for Dermot.

"You have me," Eric said firmly, "and you have your friends in Hana and Hunter. You belong with me, no one else, blood relative or not." I nodded and accepted from him a slow lingering kiss that never built, but simply comforted us both.

When we broke apart, I rested my cheek against his, "Thank you. I'm better now." I was talking about the big picture, the long term, not just this particular moment in time. "I'll be stronger now that I know for sure that there's no salvaging my relationship with Niall. Knowing this, and closing that door of possibility will make me stronger," I said again, almost willing it to happen.

Eric pulled me away from him a little so he could look me in the eyes, "You did well in the battle. You acted decisively and used appropriate force for the situation, but when you come upon them again, you must strike to kill every time with your powers and your weapons. You must not hesitate or try to preserve. No messengers anymore. No regrets."

I swallowed thickly and nodded, looking at the water drops forming on and slowly trickling down the sides of Eric's muscular thigh. 'When I come upon them again,' he had said. When, not if. He knew just as I did that this wasn't over.

Eric turned my head so I was once again looking at him. His dark blue eyes were full of heat, "One inch higher and it would have been your body on that floor," he said, running his fingers lightly up my neck where I'd been cut by the deflected sword. "If we had killed the fairy in the first place, we would not have been so distracted by him or his blood." He shook his head, "And they all used different strategies of distracting us…one claiming to be a friend, another trying to abduct you while another tried to kill you, and all of them using their blood to cloud our minds." He squeezed his eyes shut and leaned down so he could kiss my neck over and over again.

He sat up tall again, brushing a wet clump of my hair away from my cheek, "Their words and actions tell us little about Niall's intent in ordering this attack but it is clear that we will have to be more alert and cautious from now on."

"I agree," I responded to him, "and what this means is that I'm giving up any hopes I had regarding Niall and you're going to have to let me have more physical training sessions. You can't hold me back and try to protect me anymore. The Britlingens did the same thing by refusing to allow anyone to cause me to shed even a drop of blood. I need to learn how to fight when I feel truly threatened and when I'm hurt. I'm done being treated like something precious and fragile, Eric."

Sadness and regret rolled through his mind, followed by flashes of me in pain. I held him tighter, cupping my hand around the back of his neck and pressing my lips to his cheek. Finally he spoke, his voice tight, "I have allowed my emotions to outweigh the logic of the situation. That tends to happen a lot where you are involved." He took my free hand and pulled me up and back under the water spray.

"Then I guess we both have a lot to work on," I said quietly and allowed myself to be embraced in a tight hug.

Feeling more like myself again, I decided to shower in earnest and grabbed the shampoo bottle from its shelf. Eric took the bottle from my hand, squeezed soap out into his palm and began to wash my hair. I automatically leaned into his hands and felt the tension leaking out of my head as his fingers massaged my scalp and cleaned my hair.

"I'm afraid our plans for the night need to be changed once again." Eric said from behind me, "I need Maeve focusing her attention on figuring out why her wards didn't work below ground. Our home will have to wait for another night." I smiled and peered around at him to find him looking at me sweetly as he mentioned 'our' home.

There was the silver lining to my storm cloud. How did this man always manage to make me feel so loved and how in the world did I get so lucky with him?

"I still want to continue our tour without the lower floors included of course. Obviously, the fairies must have determined that this area was a weakness." He pulled me into him again and wrapped his arms around me. "Whatever Cataliades' reason for coming, I will always be grateful that he delayed our tour that would have taken us underground alone and unarmed. The results of that engagement would have been very different had we been alone."

I gave a bitter little laugh, "You think?" I said sarcastically. Eric laughed with me, leaned over my shoulder and kissed me tenderly. I reached back and held him to me by grasping his hair and pulling gently to prolong the comfort of our contact.

He broke the kiss, "We have a guest waiting on us," he reminded me as he reached for the soap.

o-o-o

Ten minutes later, we were both dressed; Eric in an exact copy of his previous outfit and me in another of Miriam's designs which included a pair of dress jeans with faux pockets along the length of my thigh to stash the weapons and a black long-sleeved shirt. I donned my iron jewelry and wrapped on an extra silver dagger under the leg of the jeans and an iron one tucked into the back of my pants waistband in its sheath. I was done taking chances and trying to pretend that everything was okay.

"Eric, do you know where my necklace is? The green peridot pendant I left in Hana?" I asked, rubbing my upper chest where it had sat for so many years. I wanted it back. I wanted the feeling of security it had always given me. Even if it was a false sense of security, I still wanted it.

"Pam has it. She was replacing the broken chain with an iron one so the silver wouldn't burn me. I knew you would probably want to wear it all of the time, so this adaptation was necessary."

I smiled at him in thanks. If tonight had taught me anything, it was that I couldn't, even for one minute, let my guard down. Yes, I know I should have been thinking that way already, but you have no idea how emotionally and mentally exhausting it is to walk about expecting to be attacked all the time. I'd stupidly thought that Eric and I had earned at least a tiny break from all the angst, but it turned out that all I'd been doing was shutting my eyes and pretending.

That wouldn't happen any longer. This was my life now. Even if I felt safe in Hana or was supposed to be safe here in this building, I would always prepare for the worst. This would have to become my new normal.

We walked together down the same corridor we'd traveled less than an hour ago and Eric paused at the right side of the door to the conference room. He gave me a long, serious look and ran his thumb over the edge of my jaw. I took his hand in mine and kissed his palm and nuzzled my cheek into the spot I had kissed.

We stayed like that for a few seconds and then turned back to the door. Eric activated a monitor at the right side of the wall, which showed us that Will and James were both standing right next to the door and Mr. Cataliades was sitting at the table looking completely relaxed.

Eric opened the first of the security doors, closed it once we had passed through and then opened the next, carefully positioning himself in front of me until he'd seen for his own eyes that all was as expected within the room.

Mr. Cataliades stood, but made no other movements as we entered. Eric pulled out a chair on the exact opposite end of the table from the lawyer and encouraged me to sit but he remained standing, positioning himself threateningly at my side.

Mr. Cataliades sat back down at the other end of the table and looked at us each in turn. "Your Majesty, Miss. Stackhouse, it's a pleasure-" he began.

But Eric cut him off, "Skip the pleasantries," he said simply and I realized that I was seeing the King in action.

Mr. Cataliades nodded and looked at me. I was relieved to see that he looked good. I'd had the occasion to see him ruffled before, and it wasn't a good look for the large lawyer. This fight with the fairies hadn't seemed to shake him at all, during or after. I also noted that he hadn't aged in the time I'd been gone, not that this surprised me. I didn't know much about demon lifespans, but it was nice to see another familiar and hopefully friendly face.

On that note, I remembered to keep my guard up emotionally, trying to separate out any feelings I had toward Mr. Cataliades. I felt Eric's approval run through my mind and he reminded me to be ready for anything in this and all encounters.

"My purpose for coming here is threefold," Mr. Cataliades said, folding his hands before him on the table. Eric gestured for him to elaborate, and he did so, "Thirteen days ago, just as I arrived at the summit, I was contacted by Miss. Stackhouse's non-fairy kin for the first time in sixteen years," he said, deliberately avoiding any other identifiers in front of Will and James.

I took in a sharp breath of air, eager to learn anything I could about this individual, but Eric kept his eyes on Mr. Cataliades while he put his hand on my shoulder to encourage me to restrain myself. I received a burst of soothing thoughts in the next moment and I forced myself to present a calmer front.

Mr. Cataliades continued, "The purpose of this contact was to tell me that Miss. Stackhouse had disappeared. I was asked to seek out any information I could find to locate her and return her to her home."

I glanced at Eric and the look in his eyes confirmed what our minds were sharing. The sera fae had been looking for me when my energy was no longer being shared with the community while I was in the iron lined chamber.

I'd learned that they'd felt my absence, but I'd never imagined that anyone had been actively searching for me. It did explain why they were so upset the other day and in some ways it made me feel a little better to know that someone was looking out for me even if they hadn't made their presence known in my life.

"Is this the same individual who provided you with the letter, necklace and funds to pass on to me?" I asked, feeling a little jealous that my makua had made contact with him and not me.

Mr. Cataliades was very serious when he answered with a simple, "Yes."

I was about to question him further when Eric's restraining hand landed on my shoulder again and his mind pressed on mine even more, warning me that I was once again allowing myself to develop emotional dependence on an individual who I perceived as being family, but who had never proven herself to me personally.

Eric was right, but I'd had enough of his guidance for the moment, so I slapped my shields back up.

"Continue," Eric said in a deep voice, and I could hear his irritation at me coming though his voice. That was just too bad; he could communicate with me non-verbally while still being out of my head just as he usually did. There was only so much I could handle at one time.

Mr. Cataliades took a deep breath, seemingly oblivious to our exchange. "I delayed the trial which had been set for that night and left the summit immediately and began my search for you," he said, looking directly at me. I felt Eric tense behind me. "I hope, my dear, that you are not irritated to hear that I have been keeping a distant eye on you since you left Louisiana."

I felt my mouth open slightly upon hearing this information, but closed it quickly so that he would continue. "About half a year after you moved to Hawaii, I befriended a local, and through her eyes, have been keeping tabs on you."

No amount of restraining hands on my shoulder would keep me from reacting to this news. "Who?" I asked forcefully, "Who has been spying on me?"

Mr. Cataliades looked concerned, "You mustn't blame her, I am able to coax information from humans. For some reason though, my skills appeared to have very little impact on her and she proved very strong willed and difficult to manipulate."

I felt myself begin to tremble with rage at the thought of anyone 'manipulating' a friend of mine. "Who?" I demanded again.

Mr. Cataliades gave a small smile, "A lovely woman by the name of Pua."

I gave a cry of rage and jumped up, placing my hands on the table and leaning toward him, thinking that he was very lucky that this table was so long. "Did you hurt her? Did you plant any ideas in her mind? Did you change her opinion or her feelings toward me?" I couldn't stand the idea of him imposing anything on her that would have changed our relationship or hurt her in any way. I loved her as much as I had loved my Gran.

"No," he said quickly, "I had no impact upon her except to convince her that I was a friend and that she should contact me if any real danger were to befall you. I checked in with her once a year and heard only that you were thriving."

He gave a little smile that had my anger spiking again until he explained its meaning, "Most humans would have spoken freely with me about any topic, and she did, especially to set me 'straight' on a number of topics on which I apparently had the wrong opinion. But she would not speak about anything regarding you, your son or your friends, except to tell me that, in effect, you were still breathing. I grew to enjoy her quite a lot actually and plan to continue my contact with her even if you never move back to Hana."

Relaxing a little I slowly lowered myself back into my seat. I ground my teeth together when I saw the two handprints burned into the tabletop. Talk about the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Sookie," he said and he drew my attention more clearly since he'd used my first name, "my intent in watching you was purely motivated. I felt responsible for you and I knew better than any others the varied dangers that surrounded you. However, I am pleased to see how protective you are of someone I consider to be a friend."

I nodded and sat back all the way in the seat. Eric's hand landed on my shoulder again but this time it was meant to reassure rather than restrain. We both looked at Mr. Cataliades, waiting for him to speak again.

"I knew you had gone to Britlin, having a few contacts there and I also knew that you had returned to Louisiana. I followed these trails and found a witness who saw you leaving a bar with someone fitting the description of Mr. Northman the night preceding the summit. That was as far as I could trace you as your Were guards proved unable to discuss any details with me regarding your coming and going." He said the last part, not with the irritation I would expect from him but with approval for Eric's policy of glamouring his staff to ensure secrecy and security.

Eric nodded in response but continued to stare at him stone-faced waiting for more information from the demon.

"I contacted your kin and relayed my suspicions that you had gone with Mr. Northman voluntarily. She was upset with the situation, however, it appeared that you were not being held against your will and so there was nothing more she could do but wait for you to resurface.

"I was told to meet with you as soon as possible so that I could ensure your well being. I have now done that and will assure her that you are happy and well."

I nodded at him and placed my hand on Eric's, which was still on my shoulder, communicating to Mr. Cataliades that Eric was mine and that he should not be considered by my kin to be a threat to me.

Mr. Cataliades tipped his head in acknowledgment of the power and meaning of my gesture.

"This is all very interesting," Eric said, not sounding interested in the least, "but what information was so imperative for you to impart that you risked all of our lives by coming here?"

"Clearly, you are underestimating Miss. Stackhouse's non-fairy kin if you are insinuating that their concern for her whereabouts was not enough of a reason to risk the journey," Mr. Cataliades said directly to Eric, his voice so cold that gave me the shivers.

"But you happen to be right," he continued, "I was also sent to deliver messages."

"From my kin?" I asked, searching desperately for any piece of information to help me figure things out right now.

"No, one message is from myself and the other comes straight from the Ancient Pythoness," he said. Eric's hand tightened on my shoulder and I froze, knowing how important this might be. Perhaps this is why Mr. Cataliades had been attacked on the way here.

"And the message was…" Eric said impatiently.

"I would prefer to share the memory of our exchange with you directly so that you can add your interpretation to mine," he said to me.

I shook my head, "I can't read you, your mind is scratchy and…deep is the only way I can describe it."

He smiled, "That's because I don't allow you to read me, but I will permit it this one time." He looked away from me for a moment, concentrating on something else and suddenly my mind was sucked into his. This was the exact opposite from what normally happened when I read someone else's mind. This time, he held the reigns. Thankfully, I had the wherewithal to reopen the connection I had with Eric so he could see the memory too.

Just like when I'd seen Eric's dream, we became Mr. Cataliades. We saw through his eyes and heard his thoughts…

...

_I watched from the corner of my eye as the Viking left the makeshift courtroom at a sprint. The fool. Almost every other eye in the room followed his movement. Whatever task he had been set upon would be the talk of the rest of the summit._

_It was extremely rare, if not unheard of for the Ancient Pythoness to intervene with a monarch is such a way. I certainly hoped that nothing had happened to Sookie. I'd done everything I could to ensure that she was safe even though she was apparently being sequestered away at the royal headquarters. I knew she didn't have anything to fear from Northman. The grief I'd seen in his eyes when I'd given him her Will assured me that his love for her was real._

_A small gesture from the Ancient Pythoness caught my attention and I immediately stood and walked toward her. When I closed within ten feet of her, I felt a thick web of magic surround us and caught sight of her witch casting a spell to separate us from the vampires._

_I'd had occasion to speak with the Ancient Pythoness a few times over the years with my varied involvement within the supernatural community, but this was the first time she had done so in such a public venue. I looked over my shoulder and saw that not one eye was on us; the magic must be obscuring our interaction._

_She beckoned me closer and I stopped when I was only two feet away._

"_Have you reached your conclusions regarding California-Sacramento?" she asked me in her paper-thin voice._

_I smiled; she never ceased to amaze me. No one had known my true purpose in accepting Wu's last minute request to defend her at this trial. "I have," I answered._

"_I assume you understand what you must do now?" she asked me, her blind eyes boring into mine._

"_I know what I will do, but am unsure as to why I must do it," I answered, wondering which part of the bigger picture I was missing and how my actions would affect the future she saw._

_She was quiet for a long time before she answered, "Because if you don't, the Viking will meet his final death in trying to protect her."_

"_That does not concern me," I said honestly but passively, ensuring that I maintained my neutrality in this and all situations that did not directly affect me._

"_It concerns me, however, and that is what should concern you, demon," she said with a bite to her words._

_I bowed to show my deference to her, I was not stupid enough to ask for her to spell things out for me. She was as cryptic as ever, but she'd never been wrong yet._

"When the time is right, y_ou will deliver your message and also two from me," she said, her blind eyes now staring over my left shoulder. I glanced in the direction and saw that she was 'watching' Northman's child, Pamela Ravenscroft. The female vampire was in the far corner of the room, staring at a cell phone she must have retrieved from her room and was smiling gleefully. This had to be Sookie's influence; I hadn't seen Northman or his child smile in public in the last sixteen years._

_I quickly returned my focus to the Pythoness, "I would be honored to act as your representative in this and any other matter," I said with a smaller bow._

_"Tell the girl, Pele's descendant, that she should have reserves of her own blood stored," her eyes became bright with intensity, "for her own use, not the Northman's. She will need it."_

_I nodded to show that I understood her and waited for her to continue. _

_She placed one hand to her mouth and ran her fingers over her thin lips as she contemplated her words or her sight carefully. Finally she spoke, "You will tell the Viking...that if he doesn't act, others will."_

_I stood still, waiting for her to elaborate, but she simply gestured to her witch and I felt the magic surrounding us dissipate._

_I had been dismissed._


	39. Chapter 39

A/N: Mr. C is going to do a lot of sharing in this chapter. Remember that I began this story after Sookie found Adele's letter but before she learned anything from Mr. C or Amelia about the cluviel dor or his relationship with Fintan. So if you've read DR, don't assume that any truths CH wrote there will be true here as well. If you can't remember it clearly, you might benefit from reviewing the APs conversation with Mr. C at the end of last chapter.

Sorry this has taken so long, it's important so I needed to put a lot of time into making sure all the details are there. Plus I'm getting used to our new fall schedule (with the addition of fantasy football research time) and trying to find a way to make blocks of writing time.

-I forgot to say this last chapter, but thanks to Murgatroid-98 for giving me some great suggestions and tips of websites to visit for helping me develop my writing. I'm always interested in learning and since I dove into this with no training in writing at all, I can use the help. Thanks so much!

My beta is Charhamblin! Huge thanks to her.

-They still belong to CH, but this is my crazy ride.

000000000

Chapter 39

Think Tank

As suddenly and unexpectedly as I was pulled into his mind, I was kicked back out. With a gasp, I blinked to clear my head and looked up at Eric, finding myself at a complete loss to make even the slightest sense of most of what we'd heard in Mr. Cataliades' memory. Why in the hell did the Ancient Pythoness always have to be so damn cryptic? This was my life she was talking about here, not some game. I'd like someone to speak to me about it in a way that I could completely understand for once.

I was still connected to Eric's mind and he was whirling through possibility after possibility, inserting the Pythonesses' words into different scenarios…but he was discounting them so quickly that I could only catch a few.

Wu's impending attack, further fairy attacks, alliances, trades, shifter and human dealings…but nothing seemed to fit. The only thing he thought had the slightest possibility was something to do with me. The Ancient Pythoness had warned him about me before, maybe she was doing so again now. But what action did he need to take? He was already protecting me, teaching me and including me in his kingdom.

'If he doesn't act, others will.' Those words ran repetitively through both of our minds until they ceased to hold any meaning for me.

Eric's face was impassive through all of this and finally he looked at Mr. Cataliades directly. "What is your interpretation of her message?" he asked the half-demon.

Mr. Cataliades shifted slightly in his chair, "I would like to make a request before I answer your question. It would give me more to work with if I were privy to the information she told you at the summit," he said carefully.

Eric pressed his lips together as he thought through the risks and rewards of releasing this information. The Ancient Pythoness hadn't said too much to him, but he knew that any tiny piece of information could give a potential enemy power over us. And to my chagrin, Eric definitely viewed Mr. Cataliades as a potential enemy.

"Before I make that decision," Eric countered, "give us the message you have for us."

If our situation hadn't been so serious, I would have laughed at all their jockeying back and forth. But this wasn't a laughing matter, so I kept my mind focused on trying to keep on top of the situation and on following Eric's incredibly fast thoughts. I heard Eric's approval of my efforts and gave him a small mental nudge of thanks.

Mr. Cataliades nodded and turned to me again, "First let me elaborate on a point I made earlier, for it will help you to understand what has motivated my actions more clearly."

I gave him a little smile to encourage him to say his peace. He smiled back at me in a fatherly way and I felt like I'd stepped back in time and I was a young woman in my twenties again.

"For many years, my best friend was Fintan Brigant, your grandfather," he said, and his face softened a bit as he mentioned my grandfather's name.

I wasn't too shocked by his admission. I'd assumed he had some connection to Fintan if he was so involved in checking on us and giving us 'gifts,' as my Gran had written in the letter I'd found.

"We had an easy camaraderie since we were half-fairy and half-demon. For even though our immediate families accepted us both, the communities at large shunned us, and our mixed blood."

He shared with me a look that informed me that he knew the struggles I had faced due to my mixed blood and I acknowledged him with a small nod.

"When Fintan found Adele and fell in love with her, he requested that I do two favors for him," he said with a slightly bothered expression on his wide face.

Uh oh. I bit my lip and had to force myself to take a breath and then I carefully blocked my thoughts about this particular topic from passing on to Eric. I was sure that I knew what one of the favors had been. I'd never told Eric about the cluviel dor because honestly, I hadn't planned on ever using it. I just didn't understand it enough to risk invoking its power. I'd heard too many stories where one wish goes horribly awry and I had enough supernatural influence in my life to have major respect for this device. I wasn't ashamed that I'd kept it a secret from him, but I still was a little nervous about his reaction.

At this point, Mr. Cataliades turned his dark eyes on Eric and said firmly, "The fewer individuals who have access to this information, the safer you all will be," and he let his eyes flicker to Will and James.

Eric gestured to his guards and they left the room through the door opposite the one Eric and I had entered. I knew they'd be standing right out side, but neither of them looked happy to leave Eric alone in the room. On his way out, James handed Eric his sword, a dagger and what looked like a small panic button device. Will gave me his sword with a pointed look. I wasn't exactly sure what that was all about, but at least he was confident enough in my abilities to give me a weapon.

Once they were gone and the door had fully closed, Mr. Cataliades said, "The first thing Fintan asked of me was that I deliver to Adele a specific item that might help to keep her safe if she or their children or grand children were targeted because they were of diluted royal blood."

There it was. I felt Eric's eyes on my back, but I stayed facing forward, debating what to do. Some would say that a thousand year old vampire would be unable to resist using a magical item for his own benefit if he had access to it, but I trusted Eric and knew he was fully aware of how very dangerous magic could be. I knew that he would only use it in a dire situation and not to make his life easier or more secure.

"What was this item?" Eric demanded.

"That was between Fintan, Adele and myself," Mr. Cataliades answered.

I spoke up; I couldn't hide this from Eric anymore. Either I trusted him or I didn't. There couldn't be any in between in our relationship. "I found it." I said and both men's eyes snapped to me. "I found it hidden in my grandmother's old desk three days before I left Louisiana," I said breathlessly.

"Explain," Eric said firmly to both of us.

Mr. Cataliades looked at me and I encouraged him to share what he knew with both of us.

"The gift was a cluviel dor, a magical token of fairy love. It is the last in existence since the knowledge of how to create them went to the Summerlands with the last of the ancient fairies. The cluviel dor holds within itself the magic of fairy love and it grants the recipient one wish."

I glanced over my shoulder when he said this and saw that Eric's eyes were gleaming with possibility. Fuck.

Mr. Cataliades saw the same thing and he hurried to continue, "However, it must be used with extreme caution," he said to me. "If, for example, you were to wish that Mr. Northman here were to always be safe from harm, it's possible that scientists might capture him and keep him locked away for observation for the next four hundred years. He would be safe, but not in the way I would imagine you would want for him."

"Could I make a wish for Sookie?" Eric asked, interest clear in his voice.

"No, it can only be used by the rightful owner. Fintan gave it to Adele and she then passed it on to Sookie when she died," Mr. Cataliades said.

I felt Eric's hand on my arm and I turned to him, answering his unspoken question. "It scares me Eric," I said firmly. "I'm afraid I'd just make everything worse rather than better."

He looked back up at Mr. Cataliades, "Just how much power does this have, what could it actually change?"

"It cannot bring someone back from the dead or change anyone's true nature of being. It can save someone who is dying and it can change the course of history depending on how the wish is stated. I believe firmly that it is dangerous," he said vehemently. "I tried my best to talk Fintan out of giving it to Adele but he was being hunted at that point and was extremely worried about Adele and their family."

"If you ever do intend to use it," he looked at me intently, "you must remember that it is of the original fairy magic and their perception of life and existence was extremely different from yours. Fintan was only half fairy so he could never have created the device alone so he enlisted the help of the last fairy versed in the old magic. This ancient fairy created the cluviel dor out of Fintan's love, but he used his understanding of his world to set its limitations and responses. Do not underestimate its complexity.

"You must be absolutely positive that the wish cannot be interpreted in any other way than that which you intend. Unless the wish is as clear as wishing that a dying person be healed, you may need to have the assistance of a fairy to guide your phrasing," he warned.

I glanced back at Eric and saw with relief that he was taking Mr. Cataliades' warning to heart.

"Do you think that Niall is after the cluviel dor? Could that be part of why he's attacking us? One of the fairies said that he didn't think I would give him what he wanted. Is this what he was talking about?" I asked, almost wishing now that I didn't even have the damn thing.

"No," Mr. Cataliades responded, "Fintan was very careful to make sure that no other fairy knew about it and the ancient fairies never discussed their art with anyone but the one who gave the love. Even in faery, creating a cluviel dor was a very rare thing.

"Believe me when I say that if Niall had known of its existence, he would have taken it from Adele the very first chance he had after Fintan was murdered and his spell of protection around your family was broken. Niall would not have been able to use it, but neither would Adele, and that is what he would have cared about most."

I breathed a small sigh of relief, but he went on, "Even though no one else knows of its existence, keep it somewhere very safe and away from yourself, for although they do not know it exists, fairies and to a lesser extent, other fae are drawn to it."

I froze as this one piece of information answered a whole line of questions that I'd had for most of my life. Once the weight of his words set in, I moaned quietly and closed my eyes as I was hit by a rush of dizziness and weakness that began in my head and continued down my body to my feet.

Eric crouched down at my side and took my hand in his. "Sookie, what is it?" he asked in a concerned voice.

I shook my head gently, but that just made my dizziness worse, so I clenched my teeth and held still.

"Did you feed and hydrate her after the battle?" I heard Mr. Cataliades' ask in an irritated tone, "She lost a lot of blood as you well know."

I heard Eric growl lightly and then a door opened and closed and a cold bottle was placed in my hand. I immediately raised it and ran it over my cheeks and forehead, which were covered by a light sheen of sweat. That helped the dizziness significantly and I was able to take a sip once Eric opened the bottle.

I grimaced at the sweet flavor, having anticipated water and opened my eyes briefly. Yuck. Coke. If I did ever drink soda, I preferred the diet versions, but right now, I figured that I needed the sugar if blood loss was the root cause of my problem. I took many large sips of the soda and quickly began to feel better so I opened my eyes and glanced at Eric.

His eyes were dark with concern and frustration, "I should have made sure you had sustenance before we came here," he said quietly. "Would you like to have some food brought to you?" He wouldn't apologize to me in front of Mr. Cataliades, but I could see it in his eyes. I reached for his mind, which had slipped from my mental grasp when I was shocked by Mr. Cataliades' words, but the dizziness came back so I was content to keep our thoughts separate for now.

I was too upset to think about food right now. I took a few slow breaths, steeled myself and turned on Mr. Cataliades. "Say that again." I demanded in a hard and angry voice. When he looked at me in confusion, I clarified what I wanted. "The last thing you said about the cluviel dor, say it again."

Mr. Cataliades pursed his lips a little and then repeated himself, "I said that no one is aware of the cluviel dor's existence, however you must make sure to keep it somewhere very safe and away from yourself. Fairies, and to a lesser extent, other fae are drawn to it."

I splayed my hands open and then squeezed them tight, trying to control my raging temper and corral my anguish. It didn't work very well. "When exactly did you give this 'gift' to my grandmother?" I asked through a throat tight with tension and anger.

"I delivered it to her just a little over four years after I visited you following your birth," he answered.

I started to shake involuntarily; Eric leaned in toward me, his concern growing quickly. "You didn't happen to mention that little piece of information about the cluviel dor drawing fairies to it to my Grandmother, did you," I said with accusation thick in my voice.

Mr. Cataliades looked slightly ashamed, "I did not learn that detail until after your parents were murdered and by then the damage was already done. Telling her then would have caused her to throw the cluviel dor away and I had promised Fintan to do what I could to make sure it stayed with your family and was eventually passed onto you."

I squeezed Eric's hand so hard that if he were human he would have had bruises. "So you left her, a defenseless and relatively clueless human, with what you knew was a dangerous magical item and you sat by as something that was supposed to help her, aided in the murder of her son and his wife. Then, almost twenty years later, you let me take it with me as I ran for my life to Hawaii," I accused through clenched teeth.

He didn't respond quickly enough so I snapped at him again. "You knew by the time I left that it was a fairy magnet, why did you let me take it with me? I had a child with me!" I very nearly yelled at him.

"I couldn't talk to you about it until I knew for sure that you had found it. My plan was to go to your home after you left Louisiana to retrieve it and send it to you with a better explanation," Mr. Cataliades said. "However when I got to your home, it was gone. I didn't contact you about it since you had selected Hawaii as your destination and I knew the fairies couldn't follow you there. You couldn't have picked a better destination than you did," he said with a paternal smile.

"I almost went to North Dakota," I seethed and I felt Eric flinch. I ignored his response; I had enough to worry about right now. "They could have followed us there easily enough."

I would have stood up again, but Eric kept a firm hold on my hand. I tugged gently against his grasp, but he held on and slowly I felt my fury abate a tiny bit.

I was angry that Mr. Cataliades had followed Fintan's wishes against his better judgment, but I was livid that he had risked Hunter's life by not being honest with me.

As I fumed in silence, Eric spoke up, "So this is why the fairies gathered in Area Five for decades and then began to travel west after Sookie left. They were following the cluviel dor, but since they could not continue on to Hawaii, the closest they could get to it was Western California."

"Like a moth to a flame," I grumbled, shaking my head. "Way to go Fintan, you really helped to protect your family," I said sarcastically to nobody in particular.

Eric growled, "So I have you to blame for all the fairy problems I have been dealing with all these years."

Mr. Cataliades gave Eric a shrug, clearly signifying that he didn't care about Eric's troubles.

"So why didn't the water fairies just finish the rest of us off then?" I demanded. "They knew where we were, why did they wait so long to attack again. For that matter, why did Niall stay away for so long?"

"That was the other part of Fintan's request," he said and I cringed. What more bad news would he be bringing me? "He asked that I be sponsor to his grandchildren through Adele," he said as though that should mean a lot to me.

Eric tensed so I guess he knew more about what a sponsor was than I did. "Right, I read about that in Gran's letter and I figured it was you she described, but what was the gift you told her you gave us?" I asked skeptically, still unable to take the bite out of my tone.

"Within a month of your birth, I gave you, your brother and your cousin Hadley a drop of my blood," he said calmly and I felt my fury increasing again. He spoke quickly upon seeing my reaction, "My blood did nothing to change you. It only served to keep you hidden from fairies. By the time you were born, fairies had already started gathering around your home and since Fintan hadn't had a chance to close the portal he created in your backwoods before he was killed, your land was a major thoroughfare for fairy travel. So my gift was my protection of you."

"In case you didn't notice, it didn't work very well," I said without an ounce of gratitude for his efforts. Rude, I know, but I was tired of people sticking their fingers, magic and their blood into my life and fucking it up all the time.

"It worked perfectly well for you until you had vampire blood, and it is working well for your brother and his children," he said and looked at Eric. "The vampire blood overrode mine since I am only half-demon. Each time you had vampire blood, my protection slipped a bit and when you bonded with Mr. Northman here, it was lifted all together.

"That's why only Claudine and Claude could find you at first. You'd had enough vampire blood by that point to let them connect with the fairy in you, but Niall who is much more magical, could not breach my defenses until you had formed your bond," he said as he gestured to Eric.

His words reinforced my concerns for Jason's family. But if he was right, and I bet he was, they were safe…thanks to Mr. Cataliades' blood. I'd always figured that the fairies hadn't bothered Jason because he didn't have the 'spark,' but maybe they hadn't even been aware of him. Niall had always ignored any mention I made of Jason and I was sure he was trying to hide the fact that he couldn't see or find him.

Naeve and Lochlan had found Crystal, but that was more of a mistake. They said they had been drawn to that place by the violence done to her by the werepanther, Mel. So they hadn't sensed Jason or his growing baby in Crystal as I had feared…that was something.

I looked at Mr. Cataliades, and slowly, shame melted my anger. "I'm sorry I was harsh. Thank you for watching over my family," I said sincerely.

"I understand your reaction and I'm pleased to see you not trusting as easily as was your pattern before. You will need to question everyone's actions and study each possible motive if you are to survive," he responded.

"Wait," I said worriedly. "Dermot found Jason; he tried to protect him from someone who had killed Jason's wife."

"Yes. My magic is limited because I am half-demon and it is even more limited when it relates to half-fairies," Mr. Cataliades admitted.

"So any half-fairy could find Jason's kids," I said, squeezing the tension headache that was pounding in my temples.

"Possibly, but there are very few half-fairies left," Mr. Cataliades responded.

I nodded and finally released Eric's hand with a gentle brushing of my fingers along his palm to thank him for his non-verbal support. He stood up beside me and put a reassuring hand on my back.

"This brings me back to the message I personally wanted to deliver to you," Mr. Cataliades said, offering a smooth transition back to the matters at hand.

"I was aware, as I said before, that you had gone to Britlin and would probably be returning to Louisiana. I then received a request from California-Sacramento to help her build a case against you," he said to Eric. "It's no secret that I had a long history of working with Louisiana's Queen and her Sheriffs and so it was assumed that you and I had personal differences that ended that affiliation. Wu played upon that to achieve her own goals, and I allowed her to believe that I truly had a personal vendetta against you."

"Was that a falsification of the facts?" Eric asked dubiously.

Mr. Cataliades puckered his lips in thought and studied Eric. "I neither like nor dislike you. I find your approach to running your monarchy novel and smart, but I was not impressed with the way you handled things as far as Sookie was involved."

Eric narrowed his eyes again and I pressed my back into his hand, giving him support now that he was in the hot seat rather than me.

"As I've told Sookie, I am her sponsor, so it is my business to watch over her. You handled things poorly and although I have learned over the years from friends in Europe that you had other plans ready to help her if things did not go your way, I still believe you failed her miserably. During our last meeting when you signed the alliance contract, I was disappointed in you and disgusted that you ended up behaving so predictably and narrow-mindedly. Despite your obvious love for her, you managed to once again put yourself and your own needs before Sookie's welfare."

Eric was taught with anger and when I looked up at him, I saw that his fangs had run out. We'd been through this together already, so it was not harder, but certainly more uncomfortable for him to hear it coming from someone else.

"Please continue," I said to the lawyer to try and diffuse some of the tension.

Mr. Cataliades looked at me, and the intensity faded from his glare. I was surprised to find that he was pretty scary when he was angry. "Yes, my dear," he said gently. "I went to California-Sacramento under this guise, for I knew that Mr. Northman had found you and that you would return to him. My purpose in making this trip was to ensure that you returned to as stable and safe a kingdom as possible."

He unfolded and then refolded his clasped fingers and continued, "What I found in California was more alarming than I had anticipated, although with Wu, nothing should surprise me," he said with a small smile. Clearly he was impressed with the Queen and this worried me.

"After the incident in Oakland…" he began and when I grimaced, he nodded. "I thought that might have been your doing, given the timing of events." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, I'd have to talk with him later about how to handle that situation legally to find out if I was in any danger of reprisal or if I owed anyone recompense for the vampires and Weres I had killed.

"I was not privy to the exact details of what occurred, but not long after that event in Oakland, Queen Wu began working with none other than your great grandfather, Niall Brigant. Their goal was to develop a plan to take over the kingdom of Louisiana and give you," he looked at Eric, "your final death in the process."

I gasped silently, "Why would they do that?" I asked incredulously.

"Wu truly believes that Mr. Northman here is to blame for her fairy problems. Everything she said at the trial about California-Sacramento's woes is true. She wants to take over Louisiana, Arkansas, Nevada and Oklahoma and rule the entire area with the support of her many followers."

I looked at Eric, expecting him to be furious, but now that he really had a reason to be upset, he had actually calmed down some and was focusing carefully on the details Mr. Cataliades was providing.

"Tell me every aspect of their interactions," Eric demanded.

Mr. Cataliades shook his head, "I know very little, only what I have told you and that their first attempt to do this was through the trial at the summit. However, I know both Wu and Niall well enough to tell you that you should expect their joint efforts to continue until they are successful in attaining their goal or you succeed in forcing them to back down one way or another."

I put my head in my palms, rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands and just listened as the conversation continued around me.

"So this is the warning the Ancient Pythoness wanted you to tell me," Eric said.

"Yes, and according to what she said, you wouldn't survive the dual attack if you were unprepared for it. For some reason that I don't understand, she has a personal interest in having you around." I could hear the smile in Mr. Cataliades' voice and could almost see him shrugging his thick shoulder.

"When I spoke to her at the summit," Eric said, obviously deciding it was time to disclose this information, "she told me that in trying to protect Sookie, I had also made her vulnerable. She said that Sookie needed me." There was a pause and then Eric continued, "I believed that she was referring to an immediate situation, and in some respects, I was right. Now, however, I believe that she was referring to a longer period of time."

"What steps are you taking to protect her?" Mr. Cataliades asked and I heard Eric growl. I glanced up and saw a look of absolute distrust and anger in Eric's eyes. "Allow me to rephrase that," Mr. Cataliades said with a pleased smile on his lips, "Think over the steps you are taking to protect her and see if any of them would be more appropriate things to do for a human or a vampire rather than a sera fae. You can't treat her the way you used to or the way you treat the child you held back from the fight tonight. Perhaps it's the act of restraining her true nature that will only endanger her more."

I looked up at Eric. We had already discussed that he needed to let go a bit and allow me to risk getting hurt in training and he already knew he couldn't hold me back the way he could Pam. We'd have to figure out what other areas needed to be adapted as well. Eric gave me a small nod and I knew we would be having a long talk about this at some point, probably at many different points in time.

Eric turned his eyes to the wall and was silent for a few minutes and then he grunted with frustration and he turned back to the lawyer. "In one breath, she is telling me to let Sookie go, and in the next she says that I need to act or others will."

Mr. Cataliades grimaced slightly. "This is the roadblock I am running into as well."

"Why is she so cryptic? Why doesn't she just come out and say whatever it is she's trying to say?" I wondered aloud.

"It is her way as a seer," Mr. Cataliades answered.

I glared at Eric, "That seems to be everyone's answer to the things I don't understand."

Eric gave me a very small smile, indicating that although he understood my frustration, we had other things to discuss. I agreed and offered up my own suggestions. "Maybe this act, whatever Eric is supposed to do is completely separate from me, maybe it has more to do with Wu or with Niall."

Eric nodded, "It is possible, but it's the second part—'or others will'—that makes this warning more specific and worrisome. If she had just said that I must act, it could be applied to almost anything, but add in the warning, 'or others will,' and it makes it much more personal."

I frowned at him in confusion and Eric held up a finger, encouraging me to have patience.

"For example, I know that I probably should kill Wu or Niall, but if others do it, I would be just as happy. Maybe she is saying that I should contact Niall, but clearly someone else has already done that. I could stage an overthrow in any number of kingdoms, but if others do, there would be little impact on me that I can see. Perhaps she is telling me that I should put Mr. Cataliades here on my retainer or others will. This could be a problem, but others have already done so and here he is because of you Sookie, so that's not it. There are any number of kingdom and inter-kingdom issues in the works right now, but none that are so important to me that I would be destroyed if others made a move before I did.

"The only thing I can think of that really matters to me and that the Ancient Pythoness also seems to be invested in is you, Sookie. So what do I need to do about you that if I don't act, others will?"

Suddenly it hit me, the bond—she could easily have been talking about the bond. It made perfect sense. The last time I had been in her presence, Andre had almost forced me to begin a bond with him, but Eric had stepped up and completed our bond. Maybe she was telling us to avoid this possibility by creating our own bond. Of course, a vampire wouldn't have a very easy time forcing anything on me so long as I was strong enough to use my powers. No sir, there would be a pile of dust at my feet if anyone tried what Andre had done to me again.

By the look on Mr. Cataliades' face, he was thinking the same thing. He spoke first, "Have you given her your blood yet?"

Eric's eyes flicked to the lawyer and I was so busy watching Eric as a whole range of emotions ran across his face, that I missed whatever Mr. Cataliades did that made Eric's fangs run out and his body tense. By the time I glanced at the half-demon, he was looking contemplative and a little bit worried.

Hell, I would be worried if Eric were looking at me that way too so I intervened. "The bond is certainly a possible answer. What else can we think of? Eric's already had my blood so that's not it, and we're already married in the eyes of the supernatural community."

"She wouldn't be referring to a human wedding since that ceremony has no value to her…" Mr. Cataliades began.

"And because I wouldn't marry anyone else," I said firmly.

We were all silent for a while, "Maybe it has to do with something only you can do as king that would impact me," I proposed. Oh crap, it hit me as an earlier thought lined up with this one. I looked up at both of the men in turn and my voice came out a little smaller than usual. "Maybe you need to levy a public punishment on me for what I did in Oakland," I suggested.

Eric turned his anger on me this time, "You were defending yourself against what you saw as an attack party," he growled. "The vampires drew first blood and the Weres attacked you physically."

I looked at Mr. Cataliades, "But will the Were and vampire communities see it that way? Sheila is still upset about it and she's not even a Were or from that area. Maybe if he doesn't do something publically to punish me, someone else will."

Mr. Cataliades was thoughtful for a few moments before speaking. "I studied this case thoroughly in the time I was in California. The vampire situation was fully resolved at the summit," he said with a sweep of his hand. "As for the Weres, they were hired members of the group, involved in a packmaster supported activity. The problems occurred because they didn't follow protocol and abort the mission when their fairy counterparts left when they encountered your scent. There is no legal leg for them to stand on and pack regulations would support that you were acting in self-defense. There is no reason for it to ever be made public knowledge that you were even there."

"But Sheila knows," I said.

"Because I told her and she will not tell anyone else about it," Eric said firmly.

"I'm sure that one of the vampires or Weres who went to the apartment will recognize my scent. It's bound to happen Eric. Remember James and Will's reaction when they smelled me for the first time?"

"Sookie." Eric said, crouching down at my side again, "Stop." He took my hand in his and rubbed his thumb over my fingers. "I know you feel guilty about what happened, but you did nothing wrong."

I shook my head, "What if your association with me causes your credibility with the Were community to be damaged. You've worked so hard to have a good relationship with them, what if I mess it up? I'd willingly accept censure of some sort to keep from damaging your relations with the shifters over this."

Eric looked at Mr. Cataliades and I saw a significant nonverbal message pass between them.

"You're thinking like a human Sookie," Eric said, "think back to what you saw occur in the Long Tooth Pack and put someone else in your shoes. What do you think they would have done?"

He was right, but I still believed that I should receive some sort of punishment for losing control like that. I hadn't just damaged a building or a forest; I'd killed five individuals, three of whom I saw as relatively innocent.

"I didn't have to kill them, I just lost control when Hunter was hurt and vulnerable," I said, providing the lawyer with more information.

"That changes nothing Sookie, the facts are still the same. They should not have been there in the first place without their fairy teammates," Eric said.

Mr. Cataliades put his hand flat on the table and said, "Mr. Northman is right Sookie, you need to start thinking more like a sera fae than a human in order to survive in this world. You must apply the same passion you use to protect others in protecting yourself," he said and once again I felt a whole lot younger than I really was. "I have to say that I'm more than a little worried about the guilt you carry with you about the events in Oakland, you must not rely so much on your heart, but on your mind to guide your actions."

I nodded slightly, but every time someone told me that, I remembered Pele telling me to keep hold of my human emotions and of my heart. I could see how both recommendations made sense, but how could I be both hard and strong to protect myself and those I loved while at the same time, allow my heart to guide me? I wanted desperately to do both things, but they seemed to always be at war with one another. It was threatening to pull me in half.

For now, I'd think like a supe, "How about the cluviel dor?" I said, "Maybe Eric is supposed to use it or someone else will."

Mr. Cataliades shook his head, "As I said earlier, only you can use it or someone else of you bloodline that you bequeath it to when you die. I do not believe that vampires can activate the fairy magic anyway." He turned to Eric. "Did you ever feel fairy magic coming from Sookie's house? I know that Sophie-Anne did not feel it."

Eric shook his head, looking perplexed.

"I had it in my dresser drawer the last night I saw you," I offered, but he shook his head again.

I frowned, thinking things through more clearly. "Is that a sign that you can use the magic…being able to feel it?" I asked.

"Generally, yes," Mr. Cataliades answered.

"That's interesting," I said slowly, thinking back to the few times I had touched the cluviel dor since I left Bon Temps.

Both men looked at me quizzically so I explained, "Well, when I first found the cluviel dor, I was incredibly drawn to it and it made me feel good…safe…I don't know. It sounds weird, but it kind of called to me. I'm sure that's why the fairies were willing to follow it across the country." Mr. Cataliades nodded, supporting my assumption. "Ever since I moved to Hawaii, I haven't felt that so much anymore. Maybe just a little comfort, but I'm no longer drawn to it the way I was at first," I said with a shrug.

"That is interesting," Mr. Cataliades said. "It's possible that you have changed so much that you no longer respond to its magic, and if you don't respond to it, it won't respond to you."

"Is there anyway to know for sure?" I asked.

"Yes. Try to use it," he said with a little smile, reminding me a little of Diantha at that moment.

"Thanks," I said, not really meaning it. His smile grew. You just gotta love these supes and their sense of humor.

Mr. Cataliades sifted in his seat, "There's one other thing that I'd like to have you two thinking about regarding the Ancient Pythoness' warnings. I have grown to trust her sight, but we must always question motive, even her motives. What is it that she is hoping to cause to happen or stop from happening and why does she put such heavy value on your lives?"

He looked at me again in a very paternal way, "I am inclined to think that she's trying to help you, but you can not afford to make that assumption. Everyone acts in ways that will help them achieve their own goals. What are her goals and why do you play a part in them? Always ask that question Sookie, take nothing at face value," he said and I nodded.

He shifted in his seat again, obviously getting ready to leave, but Eric cut in. "You're not finished," he said firmly to the lawyer.

Both Mr. Cataliades and I looked at him, waiting for him to explain himself.

"You forgot to explain why the fairies were determined to kill you," Eric said in a way that made me think he already had suspicions as to what Mr. Cataliades would say.

"Yes," he said contemplatively, "I do need to explain that to you." He looked down at his fingers for a minute and then back up at me with his typically calm expression firmly etched in his features.

"By accepting Fintan's request and becoming your sponsor, I helped him in defying Niall's wishes to find you. Niall was already upset with me for helping Fintan evade him when he visited Adele, but the minute I gave you my blood, I made a life-long enemy of the fairies…so long as Niall is Prince." He said the last part while looking at Eric with raised eyebrows.

"My friendship with Fintan is one of the reasons I and my family have been so closely associated with vampires in the last forty or so years. We didn't need the vampire's protection," he said with a sneer, "their proximity simply kept the fairies away, somewhat like mosquito netting keeps pests from bothering humans."

I looked at him sympathetically, feeling sorry the trouble he had faced to keep us safe; nothing was ever easy in the supernatural world. I regretted even more now how rude I'd been earlier, but I had no way of knowing that he'd put himself so far out on the line for us.

He made a sweeping gesture of his hand, "That has had little impact on my life, don't be concerned. I also took your kin as my client, agreeing to represent her in dealings with you or any of your relatives should the need arise. As payment for my work in helping you leave Louisiana, she gave me and my family her protection."

I stared at him in shock, "What do you mean by that? What kind of protection did she give you?" I asked, leaning forward in my chair. "Can I protect the people I love? How? How did she protect you?"

"That is between us," he said and I felt as though I'd had the back of my hand slapped for poor behavior, "but by siding with her, I made myself even more of a target for her enemies and those who dislike the idea of diluting sera fae and fairy blood."

I hung my head slightly, partly from disappointment that I was once again left to flounder on my own and part for his troubles. "I'm sorry," I said quietly, "you shouldn't have to face this because of me."

He gave a small chuckle, "Sookie, I do this for my best friend and because I gave my word. I am happy to help you. I enjoy you and believe you are worthy of my efforts. I'm here to help you in any way I can, but there will be occasional times that I'll be difficult to reach, such as right before you left Bon Temps. I may not be able to help you if I am on the run from some of my more troublesome enemies as occurs on rare occasions."

"Is this why you were 'unavailable' to assist me with getting out of the marriage contact my maker created?" Eric asked.

Mr. Cataliades shrugged, "Partly. I also wanted to see how creative you were and find out just how much you valued Sookie. From where I sat, I didn't think you cared for her very much until I met with you after she left. So I guess, rather than love, it was creativity that you lacked until the very last moment."

Eric growled quietly at the half-demon and received an amused smile in return. "Don't blame me for your ineptitudes, learn from them and teach Sookie the lessons you've learned. I'm concerned that she apparently doesn't have as much time to absorb the ways of the supernatural world as you and I have had. That which made her endearing and unique as a human will quickly end her life as a sera fae."

I took a deep breath to steady myself and blushed a little when my stomach growled. Mr. Cataliades smiled widely, "On that note, it is time that I took my leave." He slowly stood up, keeping his hands visible at all times.

"I'll contact you if I have need of your services," Eric carefully offered Mr. Cataliades an olive branch.

Mr. Cataliades chuckled, "I would gladly accept your offer to join your retinue, but I think it's best that we maintain things as status quo for the time being so as not to alert Queen Wu that we are working together on this matter."

Great. Now I'm a matter to be worked on. Just…great. I caught myself as these thoughts ran through my mind. I must be hungrier than I thought to be so sarcastic and grumpy, I was sounding like a cranky Hunter.

I shook my head lightly and forced myself to pull my wits together for the next few minutes. Eric glanced at me with worried eyes and then did something on his phone. A few seconds later, the door opened and Will and James entered the room to escort Mr. Cataliades out of the building. I stood up and listened to the areas under and around the building and didn't hear any fairy minds anywhere nearby.

"I think it's clear out there, I don't hear anyone who shouldn't be here," I said.

"Thank you, my dear," Mr. Cataliades said with a small bow.

I flinched toward him, tempted to…what? Hug him? Shake his hand? Just get closer than ten feet away with a table between us? Eric took my hand gently and fingered my wedding ring, bringing my attention back to him.

"Mr. Northman," Mr. Cataliades said with his eyes on our hands, "it's refreshing to see you taking better care of my charge." He turned his dark eyes on me, "Sookie, he has his faults, but listen to him. He has managed to survive for a very long time. Be careful and follow the recommendation the Ancient Pythoness gave to you, but keep your blood somewhere safe that only those you absolutely trust can access. I'm very concerned as to why you might need it."

I nodded, "Goodbye Mr. Cataliades, it was good to see you again," I said with a small, somewhat forced smile. I couldn't muster the manners to give him a proper smile; I was too overwhelmed by the knowledge I had gained and by my concern for all of our futures.

He turned and was led out of the room by Will and James who had secured new weapons, and then he was gone.

I released a heavy sigh of relief as Eric pulled me to him so that my back was pressed firmly against his chest. I closed my eyes and crossed my arms over his, securing his embrace. I felt him rest his cheek on the top of my head and pull me even closer, wrapping himself around me in a protective and possessive manner.

His tension and worry spilled down on me, but I tried to let it roll off. I was worried too, but nothing the Ancient Pythoness said made me think that we couldn't both survive anything that came our way.

We would do this. We would prepare for war with the fairies and Queen Wu. We would accept that I'd apparently suffer a grave injury and recover with the use of my banked blood. We would find out what Eric needed to do and make sure that it was done before whoever these 'others' were did it first.

All we had to do was make absolute sure that we did it together.

0000000

A/N:

Thanks to everyone who reviewed over the last two weeks, you really keep me going! Any guesses as to what Eric might have to do?


	40. Chapter 40

A/N: Thanks to Charhamblin, my beta and to CH for creating such great characters for me to play with in this story.

Chapter 40

I turned myself around, breaking Eric's hold on me and looking up into his broody eyes. "It sure has been a pleasant evening so far," I said sarcastically, "but where can a gal get some food around here? I'm famished." I was trying to lighten the mood since Eric was still tense, but he didn't respond in the way I'd hoped he would.

He took my hand, "Come with me," he said quietly and he led me into our residence and urged me to sit down on the couch in the main room. "Pam will be here in a minute with some food for you," he said, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

"Eric, I need to learn how to get food for myself. Just tell me where to go so I can get it, Pam shouldn't have to bring it to me," I said, knowing how irritated Pam would be to have to act as my waitress.

"I hope to have time to do that this evening," he said, pacing slowly around the room. "I'll go deal with Maeve while you eat. Wait here for me, I'll only be a few minutes," he said, looking at me with his deep blue eyes. He was troubled, and by more than the ward. I could only guess without looking, but I was pretty sure that he was ruminating about what act he needed to do before others did it for him.

He confirmed my suspicions himself when he leaned over the back of the couch, placed his hand under my chin so my head was resting on the back of the couch and kissed me deeply and sweetly. I could feel his concern and worry coming through the kiss and I did everything I could to comfort him.

I loved his upside down kisses and I ran my hands up his arms to his shoulders and held him to me, not wanting to end the security of the kiss.

"Isn't that sweet." Pam said humorlessly. "Although I thoroughly enjoyed the small part of this evening that I was allowed to participate in, I'm ready for things to get back to normal. I'm tired of playing nurse and maid," she said as she crossed the room. "Your food, Sookie," she said as she set a covered tray on the table and sat down again in Eric's usual chair.

Eric pulled his lips away from mine, kissed the tip of my nose and my forehead as he easily escaped my hold. "Pam, do you have Sookie's necklace?"

Pam nodded, "Yes, it's in my room with the new chain. I'll go get it."

"Wait," I said, "I don't need it this minute. I'd rather have your company while I eat." I knew that if Pam got up, she'd be off on some other task as soon as she gave me the necklace and I didn't want to be alone right now.

Pam shrugged and crossed her ankles as Eric gave me another long look and then left the room to go talk with his witch. I certainly didn't envy Maeve right now. Part of me knew I should go with Eric to act as a buffer, but there was no way I could be in a room with her right now. I'd probably let her have it myself since I was already too emotional and weak from everything that had happened tonight and being near her made my hair stand on end as it was. Nope, she'd have to handle her angry employer on her own tonight.

So instead, I dug into a delicious meal that consisted of an amazing Minestrone soup, chock full of vegetables and beans and then a plate of chicken with a sweet peach relish with red onions and red peppers. I was in culinary heaven. I had to find this person who could cook such amazing food and give them a huge hug and get a few recipes. My goodness, who would have thought that vampires would have access to someone who could cook like this? As always, Pam was amused to watch me enjoy my meal, but she refrained from commenting.

"Who makes this amazing food, Pam? I keep getting waylaid in finding my way to the cafeteria," I said as I sat back on the couch and sighed in delight at the memory of my meal.

"You believe that Eric would allow you to eat food that came from the cafeteria?" she said, giving me a look of disbelief. "I think you've forgotten where you are Sookie."

I raised an eyebrow at her and she gave a small chuckle as she shook her head.

"I know there's a cafeteria on one of the lower floors that's shared by humans and shifters. I've heard them thinking about it, but none of them thought about food this delicious," I said.

"The food that you and the rest of Eric's top ranking humans and shifters eat is prepared separately from the rest of the food," Pam said.

"That's smart," I said. "So you have another cafeteria up here somewhere?"

"Not exactly." she responded. "We had two incidents in the first year of Eric's rule that exposed major holes in our internal security."

"What happened?" I asked, simultaneously enthralled and worried to hear about what had occurred.

Pam brushed some invisible lint off her skirt, "In the first incident, one of Eric's top human advisors was fatally poisoned. In the other, another advisor and all but one member of her family was murdered by the Fellowship of the Sun."

I gasped and Pam waited for me to shut my mouth before continuing, "Those events led to us having to rethink all of our security measures. One of those measures was to separate out the food procurement and production from the main cafeteria."

"We hired a chef who prepares the meals in a secure environment and all the problems stopped," Pam said simply, but I felt that she was leaving something out of the story.

"Hiring a private chef for his top employees stopped all the problems with the food?" I asked skeptically.

Pam smiled, "Well, we also started glamouring all the support staff as they entered the building."

I felt my eyes bug out a little. "You glamour the staff daily?" I asked, absolutely amazed that I hadn't sensed that level of glamouring in the minds I'd heard. They must be total zombies.

"The security staff uses a very low level of glamouring, just to confuse them a bit, keep them from being able to speak about where they work and make them ignore anything they see that's out of the ordinary."

That didn't sound like a low level glamour to me so I raised my eyebrows at her casual reference to this process.

"It's for their protection as much as ours," she said with a slight defensive tone.

"What do you confuse them about?" I asked, feeling like I had missed something.

Pam smiled, "Tomorrow night you'll be meeting Lev Shalit, the Chief of Security for this and the other royal buildings throughout Oklahoma and Louisiana. He's young, but he was very highly ranked in the Israeli military and we haven't had any problems since he joined Eric's retinue. I'll make sure you get some time with him tomorrow night to ask him any questions you have about building security."

She was thoughtful for a minute and then she looked at me with a slightly angry expression. "The only thing that Lev's system can't defend against is a fairy attack. For that, we need to rely on magic," she said with a more clearly pronounced frown. Uh oh, was she angry with me for drawing the ire of the fairies down on them?

"Speaking of fairies," Pam began, "I'm…we're all disturbed that we let the fairy blood distract us so much that we didn't react quickly enough to keep the bitter one from hurting you. Eric may not tell you, but he's very upset with himself," she said with chagrin.

I nodded; I knew that he was unhappy about how things turned out, but I wanted to get us away from this sudden and almost apology coming from Pam. I much preferred our earlier discussion to this more unpleasant one. I didn't remember ever hearing her apologize before and it made me very uncomfortable, especially since she hadn't done anything wrong in my eyes. I would have expected and preferred if she were to have simply said that fairies were admirable foes. It made me think that she had been put up to this by James, it certainly seemed to be more his style.

"Don't worry about it Pam, I'm glad to have you at my back, but I don't need you guys to protect me. That's the point I've been trying to make. I can take care of myself and I would have healed just fine without Eric's help." I wasn't ungrateful for his help especially since I probably would have been attacked by James who was so very hungry, had Eric not staunched my blood so quickly. I just hated the idea that they might see me as the weak link that needed protecting.

"Sookie, he almost took your head off. I was sure that would be the outcome as we were all trying to get to him before his sword made contact with you. It just happened too quickly. One moment he wasn't there and then he was attacking you. None of us could get there in time," she said and I could almost see the events pass before her eyes as she spoke.

Crap, maybe the apology was actually from her and not James. I had to pull her out of this mood, I didn't like it on her and it was dragging me down when I was doing everything I could to keep a positive outlook on things.

"It doesn't matter Pam, 'twas but a flesh wound'," I said with a bad English accent, quoting one of Hunter and my favorite movies that we must have watched fifty times while he was in high school.

I started to go down memory lane, which wouldn't have been a good thing at the moment since both Pam and I were already feeling a little melancholy when a sound I rarely heard rang through the room. It took me a moment to realize that it was Pam laughing boisterously. "I love that movie! I can't believe you get it. Eric just barely tolerates it and Miriam hates it," Pam said with a wide smile. "What's your favorite color?" she shot at me with a much better accent.

"Blue…no green," I answered, feigning a perplexed expression. We both cried out, "Ahhhhhh," trying to sound like a man being tossed into a deep ravine and burst into peals laughter.

It felt so good to laugh, I let it go on longer than the moment called for before I forced myself to calm down. No, I wasn't hysterical. It was a close thing, but I was just relieved to have something to laugh about. We grinned at each other for a moment before Pam brought us back to reality with a crash, "So what did the lawyer have to say?"

Damn her.

I sighed loudly, wishing for a longer break from our problems. I needed to get together with Macey. I needed someone I could laugh with and have a normal conversation with for more than thirty seconds. Hello? Wake up call for Sookie: 'This is your Normal-get used to it.' Fuck.

Alright, I'd try to formulate an answer to her question. I thought about what I should tell her for a few seconds, but what I really wanted to do was rant that Mr. Cataliades had told me very little that would help us and only tempted me with what amounted to a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing. I was tempted to rage that he had information he wouldn't share with me that could help me protect those I loved. I wanted to blast at something to vent some of my anger that he and the Pythoness were following the pattern of not disclosing the full truth that had caused the deaths of my parents and so many others, and would surely cause untold problems in the future.

That's what I wanted to do, but I didn't. It wouldn't help anything and would only earn me a crossed arms and thoroughly unimpressed glare from Pam in return.

"Maybe we should just wait for Eric," I said instead.

"Fine, he's on his way back now," Pam said as the door slid open and Eric walked in looking a little more hopeful than when he'd left.

"Sookie was about to tell me about your meeting with the lawyer," Pam said as Eric crossed the room, scooped me up from the couch and settled down on it with me in his lap. He nuzzled my neck for a minute, taking in a deep breath. I felt myself relax simply from having this contact with him so I took a few moments just to enjoy him.

I loved when his hair was down and it ran over my skin like silk, but I also loved the feel of his bare cheek against my skin when he had his hair pulled back like he did now. His face was a mixture of smooth, soft skin and scratchy, just barely there stubble. The hard bones of his cheeks and jaw contrasted nicely with soft smoothness of his lips. Obscured by those soft lips, which could be so generous and expressive, was that talented tongue and his unyielding and deadly fangs. He was a study of contrasts that I could and had spent hours examining and enjoying.

I leaned into him and got lost in the moment until Pam tapped her foot on the hardwood floor. We waited another few seconds and then broke apart to address her question. I let Eric do all the talking and simply listened as he went through the information we'd been given. Of course, it was the warning the Pythoness had sent for Eric that we got stuck on again.

Pam had a few specific suggestions, including accepting Stan Davis into Eric's alliance with Oklahoma to strengthen his forces and shore up his borders. "He has a strong kingdom, it would be unfortunate in the extreme if he were to align with someone unfriendly to us," she said and then stood up to get a bag of blood from the refrigerator in the room.

Both Pam and Eric had been drinking mostly donated blood, as was their norm when they didn't have the time or the inclination to deal with a live donor. Of course they drank blood substitutes when necessary, but obviously enjoyed the real stuff best. I couldn't blame them, I preferred real food to processed crap too.

Eric declined Pam's offer of blood and then he'd leaned down so his lips traced the line along my neck where the large gash had been and whispered, "I had more of your blood tonight than I've ever taken from you at one time." I felt him tense and a slight shiver ran along his skin so I nuzzled my face against his and gave him a light kiss, proving to him that I was alive and well.

Pam returned with her blood and drew our attention back to Stan Davis. If they added Texas to their alliance, they would have a block of four states together in the center of the country that were aligned. Arkansas wasn't officially a member of the alliance, but they were still in their probationary period of independent rule and so were strongly influenced by Eric and Freyda.

Pam's theory made sense and was an easy answer to the riddle the Pythoness had given us. I wished I could grab onto it, but it just didn't feel right. It was too easy.

I looked back at Eric and I could tell he was contemplating the possibilities. He shook his head, "I don't think this is the answer, but it's something to think about. I'll talk with Freyda about taking his request more seriously. If we're looking at a war with the fairies and California-Sacramento, this would be a prudent step to take," he said with a frown. Eric hated being pushed into anything and I could see the frustration in his eyes but there was nothing I could do about it.

We discussed everything in detail with Pam except for the cluviel dor. She eagerly encouraged us to bond when she came to the same conclusion that I had reached. Eric glared at her and she dropped it, but not before I saw a heated exchange pass between them and then she got the same look of worry on her face that I'd seen Mr. Cataliades get.

I had the distinct feeling there was something that everyone was catching on to except for me regarding us bonding again, but clearly Eric didn't want to discuss it right now. He'd tell me when he was good and ready.

Scratch that. He'd better tell me sooner than later. He'd promised not to withhold information from me anymore, so maybe he just didn't want to discuss it with anyone else and frankly, I didn't either. Whether we chose to bond again or not was between us, no one else; not even the Ancient Pythoness.

Then I began to wonder if Eric was sending these angry signals every time someone brought up the bond because he didn't want to risk going there again. It hadn't worked out so well for us last time. I had doubted the bond, hated it at times, and then both Eric and I had suffered the horrific pain of it breaking.

It was a major commitment to make and a huge leap of faith, much more significant than marriage or declaring love for one another. A bond would tie us together permanently in the most elemental way. Perhaps Eric simply wasn't interested in bonding again. I couldn't really blame him if he wasn't willing to do it, but the thought made my heart ache.

I wanted to bond with him again; I missed it terribly. I missed having his emotions in my mind, whirring around in the background without having his thoughts too. I missed the comfort of his constant presence in my life. I wanted to bond with him again because I loved him desperately and wanted to increase the ways in which we could share our love with one another.

What I didn't want to do was bond with him because he felt that it was what we needed to do based on what someone else told us. The idea of Eric being forced into bonding with me, the way we had been years ago made me feel physically sick and unbearably sad.

Eric ran his fingers down my cheek and along my jaw, applying just enough pressure to encourage me to turn my head so I was looking back at him. We gazed at one another and I watched as his expression changed from confusion to concern.

He shifted our bodies so I was sitting on the couch next to him and he slowly crawled toward me, encouraging me to lie down beneath him. I glanced over to look for Pam, but she was gone. "Where's Pam?" I asked as his lips grazed my temple.

"She left. Where did you go?" he asked me quietly.

I hadn't gone anywhere so I guessed my reflections hadn't passed unnoticed. I shrugged as best I could while being pressed into the couch by Eric's heavy body, "I was just thinking," I said, trying my best to hide my emotions.

A brief flash of panic lit Eric's blue eyes and he allowed more of his weight to press down on me and he wound the fingers of one of his hands around the back of my neck and the others into my hair. "Sookie, don't run from me. Don't hide your thoughts from me. We'll handle this together."

I understood where his panic came from. The last time I was told I was in danger, I'd made plans without him and those plans had changed our lives for the next sixteen years.

"I'm not going to run Eric. I'm in this with you for the long haul. I won't do anything major without discussing it with you first. I'm just worrying about everything, that's all," I said quietly.

I ran my hands down the back of his head and to the leather strip binding his hair. I caught my index finger and thumb in the material and slid it down the length of his hair, freeing it to curtain around my face. Eric smiled at me when I blew a few of his locks off my nose and with that, the tension began to dissipate.

His hands released my hair and snaked under my shirt. He ripped my bra down the middle and snapped the straps and then pulled it out from under my shirt and tossed it across the room. I gasped happily as he ran his fingers across my nipples, gently teasing me. His touch intensified and he bit lightly at me through my shirt, but didn't remove or even lift my shirt. His touch was almost more sensual because of the clothing separating us.

He had me writhing with desire within a minute, using his lips, tongue and teeth on my neck, jaw and lips while his hands continued to pleasure my breasts.

I was desperately working on the buttons of his shirt when his hands made their way back up to tangle in my hair and his mouth made its way to my neck. I sighed as deeply as I could with his weight on me when he licked from my clavicle to just below my ear.

His lips tickled my ear as he whispered to me in a deep voice that caused my back to arch in a reflexive response.

"For more than a year, I have been completely obsessed with the idea of renewing our bond. I've loved having you in my arms and in my mind when you allow it, but I need to have my blood inside you again Sookie," he said and I could hear the yearning in his voice.

I froze and then a smile crossed my lips as I felt the joy of hope and anticipation speed up my heartbeat. "You want to bond again?" I asked just to make sure I hadn't misheard him.

He nibbled on my ear, "I don't just want it Sookie. I need it. I need to be connected to you again," he said and I melted.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" I asked, "I've wanted it too. I thought that maybe you didn't want to do it again because of how I hurt you when I broke it last time." I pressed the side of my face to his as I said this, I was still ashamed of the pain I had caused him.

He looked at me, his eyes shining with love, "I waited so long because we both needed to be stronger before I could take enough blood from you to make a resilient first stage of bonding. I want this bond to be even stronger than the one we had before. I didn't plan to do this here, I wanted to do it in our home, but I've had more than enough of your blood tonight, so all you would have to do is take my blood now and we could begin the bond. If you want it."

I stared at him for a minute, in awe of the thought he always put into everything. He'd waited until I had enough energy and blood to spare and he had enough strength to keep from draining me. He'd wanted this to be special and private for us, but circumstances led us to this moment.

It could still be special because this was the way a bond was meant to be created...through love, not trickery or force...love. "I want it, Eric. I want you," I said, catching his face in my hands and smiling at him.

He kissed me slowly, his lips ghosting over mine, just barely allowing his tongue to caress my mouth and then he pulled back. I stared up into his beautiful face, so content and so happy that I allowed almost all of the horrors and worries of our lives to be left behind.

There was one thing I needed to know. "This has nothing to do with the Pythoness?" I asked, demanding honesty from him.

"Nothing," he said, and my elation grew. I could feel that he was telling the truth.

Our lips met and we expressed our love and our commitment to each other and to this bond through our kiss. When we broke apart, Eric's eyes were glowing with excitement.

"Are you ready?" I asked him and I forced fangs to form from my teeth and smiled sassily up at him.

He flinched back, all happiness fading from his face as he stared at my mouth. He'd seen me do this before, so it shouldn't have upset him, but for some reason, it had. I encouraged my teeth to return to their normal shape, "I'm sorry. I thought you liked it when I did that," I said quietly, feeling a blush of shame rising on my cheeks and tears of regret and sadness threatening to build in my eyes.

Eric's fingers tightened in my hair, making me wince and then the pressure was gone but his fingers were still holding me. "I do like it," he admitted, "but there is something I must tell you."

"Now?" I asked and even I could hear the whine buried in my voice. I didn't want to talk. I was tired of talking. I wanted to be with him, to bond with him. Right now.

"It would be best, I don't want you to hear of this from Pam or someone else," he said with determination.

"Okay," I said, feeling more than a little unsure. Eric wouldn't interrupt our bonding for just anything.

He kissed both of my cheeks and then my forehead before speaking. He was stalling. I gave him a small, albeit nervous smile to encourage him to get on with it.

"There are many possibilities as to what the Pythoness was talking about with her warning to me…thousands of possibilities." My heart sank at his return to this topic, but I nodded slightly, letting him know I understood what he meant. "But I still believe that her warning relates specifically to you. Even with the focus on you, there are still dozens of potential answers...but there is only one that terrifies me," he said quietly.

"Oh, Eric." I said quietly. I was deeply touched that he was so worried about me. "As soon as I've fully recovered from this injury, I'll donate the blood. I know it's hard to think about, but I can accept that I might be hurt in the future. She's telling us that if I have the blood, I'll survive whatever is going to happen." What I didn't tell him was that I was going to put aside twice as much blood as I might need just in case he or Hunter were the ones who needed it in the future. She said that I would need it, but she hadn't explained why. "I'm terrified about what might happen too, but we'll be…"

"No Sookie. She said that if I don't act, others will. There's only one thing that my gut tells me is the correct fit. I know it's the right answer, Cataliades knows it, and Pam knows it too." I could hear the anger and frustration growing in his voice and sure enough, the next time I looked at his mouth, his fangs had run out.

I looked back into his eyes. He was staring at me, but not really seeing me, I could almost see his thoughts whirring in his mind. I tried to sit up, but he was distracted with his internal musings and didn't release me from his grasp when I gently pushed at him.

Finally he focused on me again. "I wouldn't have told you this sixteen years ago. I would have wanted to protect you from this knowledge, but I've promised you that I would tell you everything and I will. I just need you to promise me that no matter what I say, you won't run away from me again."

"No, Eric. I'm done running, I've…"

He cut me off, and the pressure of his body on mine increased and his eyes took on the look that he had when he was completely determined to do something.

I braced myself as my heart began to pound in reluctant anticipation of hearing the words that were so hard for him to speak.

He touched his forehead to mine once before speaking, "I believe that the Ancient Pythoness is telling me that I need to make you vampire before someone else does."

My pounding heart stopped and I felt horribly trapped under his heavy body. I was suddenly bowled over by an intense and innate need to destroy him, to end what threatened me. I gasped and cried out unintelligibly as I restrained my natural defenses. Luckily, I was weaker than usual, so I was able to win my internal battle in a matter of seconds. "Get off me!" I yelped.

"What?" he said, the fire faded from his eyes and was replaced by hurt confusion.

"Get off me! If you want me to stay here, let go of my hair, get off me and put your fangs away!" I demanded with what little air I could gasp into my panicking lungs.

He released me, levitated away and I scrambled up and moved across the room, only to find myself trapped against a wall.

"You are scared of me?" he asked incredulously.

"You just told me that you believe that your most revered seer told you that you need to turn me. I'm not scared of you, Eric; I'm scared of what you might do because of her cryptic warnings and advice. I'd be a fucking idiot not to be scared," I answered.

His eyes dimmed even more and his shoulders appeared to sag a little.

I hated that I had scurried away from him like a mouse hiding from a hungry cat. My adrenaline was fading a little and my frustration with the situation and my fear of Eric's blind submission to the seer's words came out as anger, which I threw at Eric like so many daggers since he was my only available target.

"Dammit Eric! You've been trying to teach me how to separate my emotions so I can see clearly and then you do this! How dare you compromise me by putting me in a vulnerable position that is possible between us only because of our love and trust and then tell me something like that?"

"Sookie, I wasn't compromising you, I just don't want you to run away again," he said as he took a small step toward me. He honestly didn't see that he'd done anything wrong.

I had no doubt that if it was anyone but me, he would have simply made up his mind and then turned them without even discussing it with anyone else except for maybe Pam. That was who he was and how he did things. He made up his mind and acted. I was asking a lot of him by demanding that he include me, but I'd never been more relieved that he'd been honest with me than I was right now.

I took deep breath and held my ground, "I won't run away again because I trust you. Do you have any idea the level of trust I have to have to be with you this way?" I gestured toward the couch. "I don't just have to trust you not to kill me but I also have to trust you not to make me hurt you by forcing me to defend myself. I trust you with both of our lives Eric-every second we are together. Now it's your turn to trust me not to overreact anymore and to let me have control over my own future.

"I am in charge of my own life Eric, and although I will take your opinion into account, I will not hand my life over simply because you _think_ the Pythoness warned you that you should turn me."

Eric just looked at me, his expression frozen. I felt my anger fading a bit and desperation began to set in.

"Remember what Mr. Cataliades said Eric—we don't know what her motives are. Even if this is the answer to her 'riddle', and I know that it's not, what's her game? What's her goal? Why should you take her words as the ultimate truth when you have no way of knowing why she said what she said?"

He took a step forward but halted when I held up my hand, he was close enough for now. "I didn't say I wanted to do this Sookie, it's the last thing I want, but if I'm faced with losing you or risking someone else turning you, I will do it, with or without your permission," he said with determination.

"You know I don't want that," I said and it was all I could do to keep my voice from wavering under the weight of his resolve.

"And if the only way to save me were to make me sera fae, are you saying you wouldn't do so Sookie?" he said, knowing already what my answer would be.

My righteous indignation deflated a little. I would do it in a heartbeat if I could, just as I knew for certain that Eric wouldn't hesitate to turn me if he thought he was going to lose me. I could never ask differently of him. I didn't want him to suffer my loss again but knowing that didn't mean that it had to happen.

I took a step toward him, attempting to heal our rift, "You're right. I would do anything to save you, and I accept that you would do the same. But this doesn't make any sense Eric. Yes, I see how it sort of fits into the riddle and has incredible meaning to you, but it doesn't make any sense," I reiterated.

"I'm more powerful than both vampires and fairies when I'm willing to use my full abilities to kill. You are completely vulnerable every day whereas I can survive without sleep. You are susceptible to sun, wood and silver whereas only warm iron weakens me.

"Why in the world would the Ancient Pythoness want me to become something weaker than I am now if her intentions are to help us? Why would she think you would want or need me like that? What could I, or someone else, possibly gain from me being made vampire? If they wanted to weaken me and I was that compromised, why not just kill me?" I asked, flinging my hands out wide in frustration.

"No. That's not what she's talking about Eric. I know it isn't," I said, putting everything I had into convincing him that I was right. "You've got the right shaped piece but you're trying to put it into the wrong puzzle."

He didn't respond, but he was listening so I continued my argument. "Plus Eric, listen more carefully to what she said, 'Tell him that if he doesn't act, others will.' _Others, _Eric. That's a key word. We should be figuring out something that you need to do that requires more than one _other_ to complete. Only one vampire could turn me. If she meant that you had to turn me, she would have said, 'another will'."

A faint frown crossed Eric's brow. I was making progress so I took a few steps forward until I was able to run my hands up his chest and neck until I cupped his unmoving cheeks in my hands.

"Please don't lose focus just because you're worried about me being taken away by another. Remember the one thing she told you personally. She said you would weaken me by protecting me. Maybe this is the conclusion she saw you coming to and she was warning you not to make this leap."

Eric leaned down so he could rest his forehead on mine and we stood like that for a few minutes, both of us continuing to work through this problem and searching for answers.

Slowly he began to move again. He closed his eyes and then nodded and I felt the tension leave my chest and a wave of dizziness passed over me that had me clinging to him more tightly than before. When my vision cleared, I could see that he was staring at me. "You make good points Sookie, but this will remain on my short list of options. I will not allow anyone else to turn you or take you away from me," he said as his hands found their way back into my hair. Now, instead of feeling trapped, I felt safe, desired and somewhat giddy with relief.

"I would expect no less from my husband, my future bonded and my King," I said sincerely.

Eric growled as he tightened his grasp on my hair and wrapped his other hand around my waist, pulling me close to him. The next second, we were back on the couch in the exact same position we had been before we took this wild and crazy detour.

He ran his tongue up the side of my neck, making me shiver. "Now, where were we?" he growled.

Eric already appeared to have brushed off the last few minutes, but I was still shaken. I needed some time before I would be able to match his mood. I assessed my strength, wondering if I had the ability to teleport us into the bedroom, but I was running low and I had to save enough energy for the trip to Hana tomorrow. "Take me to the bedroom Eric," I said and he quickly picked me up off the couch and carried me to the bed.

He tried to lay me down, but I shook my head at him and he set me on the edge with my feet just touching the floor. I wrapped my arms around his waist and my legs around his calves, holding him tight to me and then I allowed my hands to wander. My hands found their way under his shirt to caress his strong back, running the tips of my fingers along his vertebrae and then fanning them out along his back muscles and over his ribs.

I pushed up his shirt so I could kiss his stomach and spread my hands over his broad chest. His shirt disappeared and I found myself sitting on his thigh rather than the bed. He was still standing, but had propped one foot up on the frame of the bed, making a very nice seat for me.

In this position, I could reach his chest with my mouth and I kissed and licked at each of his nipples. I heard him groan and his hands held my head gently to his chest. The moment my mouth left his nipple, he ripped my shirt down the front, pulled it off my arms and helped me to kneel on his thigh.

Our mouths met and between our kisses, I could hear Eric mumbling in his native language. This time I couldn't catch a word, but I cherished the sound of his voice. His lips slowly moved down my neck while his arm snaked behind my lower back and he leaned toward me so that I arched back and presented my breasts to him.

I moaned as his tongue licked from my neck down to my breast and swirled around my nipple and then I sighed when his other hand found its way into my pants and between my legs.

My hands could do nothing but hold on, but I was desperate to touch him. "I want you Eric," I cried out and the next moment I was on the bed and we were both naked and he was pressing against me but he refused my efforts to urge him inside me.

"What part of me do you want Sookie?" he asked.

I focused on him. He was an incredible sight…eyes shining, skin glowing, muscles bulging in his effort to hold himself back, fangs out and long hair cascading along his beautiful face.

"All of you," I demanded.

He made a sound that was halfway between a growl and a purr, "Take it Sookie."

I tried again to pull him to me, but he still resisted. Suddenly I realized what he was waiting for and I focused on forcing two of my teeth into fangs. He smiled and the next second he was inside me and I allowed the tips of my fangs to pierce the skin of his upper chest.

I felt Eric shake and heard him call out when I began to suck, drawing the blood from his body into my own. It tasted better than I had remembered, a sweet, rich flavor and that paired with the sensations he was causing in other parts of my body caused me to orgasm before I had swallowed my first mouthful.

Eric was pounding into me, and when his small wounds had healed, I looked up into his face. I was surprised to find that his eyes were closed and a look of utter bliss lightened the face I loved so much. I waited until I was nearing another climax before I transformed the nail on my right index finger into a claw. Simultaneously, I bit him again, causing him to roar out in his own release, and sliced my own shoulder. I knew he wouldn't take my blood on his own, and I wanted him to have it in this moment as part of our bonding.

His eyes flew open and he took only what blood he could get while he cleaned the wound up with soft licks from his tongue. I cleaned his chest with my own mouth and then watched as he pierced his tongue on his fang and ran it up my small cut. He didn't move until my skin had healed at the pace that was typical for me. His blood hadn't had any impact, but it didn't matter, I didn't need his help for healing anymore.

Eric was still looking blissed out and we were both in awe of our experience. He closed his eyes again and his lips began to curve up at the edges until he was positively grinning. "I feel you. I can feel you," he said happily. He relaxed into the sensation and rolled us so I was resting on his chest. "It's quieter than it was before, but I feel you," he repeated. "What do you feel?" he asked me, opening his eyes.

I'd been waiting to feel stronger or at least to feel his blood as it made its way through my body, but I didn't feel anything. "Nothing yet, but I don't remember what it felt like the first time before, maybe we have to have a bond for me to be able to perceive it. I'm not sure." He looked less happy, so I said, "I feel incredible, happy and completely relaxed, that's for sure."

"Yes, you do," he agreed with a happier expression and then he kissed me deeply. "Thank you Sookie," he said when we parted.

"No," I said with a smile, "Thank you, Eric. Maybe you'll give me all of you again tomorrow night," I said with a wiggle of my eyebrow.

His eyes glowed even more brightly and then he scooped me up off the bed. "Anything for you, my greedy wife," he said happily as he set me on my feet. "Let us get dressed, check on Shelia and James and continue our abbreviated tour."

Within ten minutes we were dressed and heading back out into the sitting room where Pam was relaxing in Eric's chair again. Even though I wasn't as uncomfortable as I used to be with nudity, I was relieved that we had retreated to the privacy of the bedroom for our bonding. I liked Pam, but not that much.

"Sookie, catch." Pam said and threw something shiny at me. I realized as it sailed through the air that it was my necklace and pendant. I grinned and raised a hand to catch it, but before I could, Eric's long arm reached out and snatched it from the air.

"Eric, No!" I heard Pam yell as his hand closed around the necklace. We both looked at her, wondering what she was so upset about.

Pam jumped up from the chair and sped over to us, staring at Eric as though he was something she had never seen before. Eric's eyes widened and then he frowned, looking down at the necklace, studying the chain closely.

I looked at it and realized with a gasp that it was my chain, the original chain of mixed iron and silver that he held in his hand. Pam removed her flesh colored glove and slowly reached out a finger toward the chain, but pulled it away with a hiss when she just barely touched it.

Eric bundled the chain into his hand and closed his fingers around it, holding it for a few seconds and then he pulled up his shirt with his free hand and pressed the chain to his chest. Suddenly, he threw his head back, laughed out loud and then I was in his arms being twirled through the air as he continued to laugh with delight.

He set me back on my feet, clasped the chain around my neck and gave me a deep kiss that made my head spin. Then he looked from me to Pam who was now smiling with awe and clutching what I assumed was my replacement chain in her bare hand.

"Well, well. This does make things more interesting now doesn't it?" Eric said with a wicked smile.

0-0-0-0-0-0

A/N: Artzannie25 caught on to the same cues Eric picked up back in Chapter 38-way to go girl! Many of you had great guesses including what Eric fears. If you pick through the reviews from the last two chapters, you'll find many of right pieces to this story's puzzle there. I have it all mapped out; I just have to get it all on 'paper' now! Thanks everyone for making this so fun for me!


	41. Chapter 41

_A/N: Hi all. So sorry for the delay. I've lost most of my bulk writing time due to schedule changes and increasing my work hours by 40%, so I've been struggling to find time to see the chapter as a whole rather than in choppy bits. So I'm getting this part out now, it's the the first half of what I planned for chapter 41 so I can feel like I'm making some progress. The next chapter is written, I just have to rework it to make sure all the bits fit together. _

_I wrote this chapter four different ways and finally realized my problem was that I needed to get out of Sookie's head and apparently Eric had a lot to say. _

_Just to remind you, Emelina is Eric's first child. CH had Pam mention her but did not name her in the books I'm basing this story on. _

_CH owns her characters, I'm just taking them out for a ride._

_0-0-0-0-0-0_

_Chapter 41 Conflicted_

_E~_

_In bed at headquarters._

_Slow steady heartbeats and breaths...Sookie._

_Warm body draped across mine. Skin soft, hair damp. Covers tucked up to my waist. Naked._

_Sookie. Myself. Sunlight. Salt water. Sunblock. Pineapple. Humans._

_Pam stirring in our bond...excited about something...hungry._

_Sookie…feeling relaxed, happy, safe._

My eyes remained closed, but I woke and breathed her in, fully appreciating the feel of her warm body entwined with mine. My arms wrapped around her, holding her close, treasuring her. We had fallen asleep like this and she must have climbed back into bed and arranged us so that we were the same way when she returned from Maui. The thought of her snuggling up close to my inert body made me smile and my chest expand with the love that was still so unfamiliar to me.

I'd been unhappy with sending her off to Hawaii alone at dawn, but Sheila would have been more of a liability in her injured state than anything else and we didn't have anyone on hand that Sookie would be comfortable with to take with her. I'd have to figure out backup options of shifter guards, but the more individuals we included into our circle, the more I put her at risk and that was unacceptable.

I'd had some time to think last night after Sookie had fallen asleep in my arms and had come to some hard realizations.

I loved her. I'd known that for a long time now, even when the knowledge was simply a bitter mockery of my loss. What I'd realized last night was that I'd been loving her, fearing for her and holding onto her, the way a human parent holds onto their young child.

There was nothing inherently wrong with the way I loved her, however, I was beginning to see that the way I was responding to the dangers and the events that had occurred in our lives might truly be detrimental to her in the long run. In fact, it might be fatal to everyone under my charge and that wasn't even mentioning what it would do to me. She was without any doubt, my greatest weakness, not because of her, but because of me.

Aude, my human wife, hadn't been a weakness to me in this way. I'd cared for her and protected her and our children, but my every thought hadn't come back to her and I certainly hadn't fallen apart when she'd died in childbirth. Our relationship had been practical, as life had demanded back then, and we had each given the other what we needed. Aude kept our home and children and I protected them and provided them with needed resources. This concept of wanting someone the way I wanted Sookie was still very new to me since I'd spent hundreds of years with Appius, on my own or with Emelina and Pam and only what amounted to about three years with Sookie as a part of my life. Even if I counted the years we spent apart, I'd only known of her for about two decades, that was less than two hundredths of my lifespan.

Even my time with Emelina was longer and I viewed those years as an incredibly brief passage of time. I couldn't help smiling fondly as I thought about my first child. Our relationship had never had the chance to become as comfortable as Pam and I were together. I cared for her just as much as I did Pam, but we'd been forced to spend so much of our time hiding out and moving from place to place that we'd never truly been able to relax. I was also much more high-strung and predatory than I was when I made Pam, having been freed from Appius' caustic influence only thirty years prior. By the time I found Pam, I was looking for someone to bring spice and challenge to my nights and she had certainly met and surpassed my expectations. Pam was not only my child in the vampire sense, but she had become my friend and my family as well.

My relationship with Pam was a little bit more like the one I had with Sookie, in terms of the fact that I cared for her more than I needed her for any practical purpose. Pam was certainly incredibly valuable in running the kingdom and had kept me focused during the first few years when my mind wandered more than was safe, but I wanted Pam's company and treasured her life more than I needed her. It's a fine distinction, but it makes a huge difference in the way I relate to her.

Emelina and I had gone our separate ways after we had been together for about ninety years. It was a little early for a maker to split with his child, but she was ready to be on her own and had fallen in love with a human and had asked me to respect her privacy. I'd followed them at a distance for a year until they settled down close to her human hometown of Ibero, which when I found Emelina, was part of the kingdom of Navarre in what is now Spain. Within a few months, my child had become a maker and she and her lover, Gustavo, enjoyed a quiet and relatively secluded life together. I hadn't seen her in about a hundred years, having last sought her out when I was making my way to the Americas with Pam, but I could feel that she was safe and content and that is what mattered to me.

Emelina had tracked me down in the days following Sookie's disappearance, having felt my pain and despair, but I'd told her to stay away fearing that she might get caught in the post-takeover fracas. I would have gratefully welcomed her as a cooling balm to my grief, but I could not risk her being here at such a volatile time.

Very few vampires still lived who knew that I had made a child before Pam and I wanted to keep it that way. Emelina had never developed Pam's love for or skills in battle, but that hadn't mattered to me. I had picked her for her kindness and her compassionate company in the years after Appius had finally tired of me rather than the fire and tenacity I'd seen and sought when I'd made Pam. Thankfully, Gustavo was a strong fighter, and although he was only six hundred years old, he was sufficiently capable of defending the more gentle natured of my two children.

I knew how my love for Sookie varied from that of my two children…that wasn't my problem. The problem I couldn't solve was how to change the way I felt, how to control the innate need to protect and micromanage her precious life. I have always followed my instincts and that has kept me alive for a millennium, so the thought of ignoring them now seemed incredibly foolish and drove me to distraction.

Every time Sookie was out of my sight, I was gripped with worry that she would be attacked, killed, taken and hurt again. It wasn't something I chose to feel and it wasn't something I could control, but I could see now that I'd have to find a way to do so, or I would prove to be the greatest risk to her. All the information I had pointed to that fact, even if it was cryptic in nature. What disturbed me on so many levels was this looming cliff ahead of me where I would have to take a step into the unknown without the chance of having any control of the situations involving the woman I loved so deeply.

I clearly recall hearing a parent scream out in fear when she thought she had lost her child in a crowd one night in New Orleans as I was returning from a meeting with the Mayor of the city. I'd rolled down my window and had seen the look of terror on her face and the mix of helplessness and battle readiness that overtook her quaking body. Thankfully at that moment, right before I would have made the decision as to whether or not I would act, the child had been spotted by her father and was swept up into her parent's loving arms. Until I lost Sookie, I wouldn't have even bothered to roll down my window, much less think about intervening, but the sound of the mother's cry spoke of a pain I knew all too well.

That's one of the moments I think of when I contemplate what it will be like to let Sookie go, even a little bit. That's how I feel every time she walks away, every second she is gone and each time she returns to me.

Of course that child will not remain young forever and in a few short years, those parents will be letting her go to find her own way in the world. I would never have thought that humans were stronger than I am, but in this case, I truly don't know how they do it. Clearly they love their children deeply, so I can't imagine how they let go.

I'd let go of Emelina and Pam, but that was different. I didn't have the burning love and need for them that I have for Sookie. I'd also had to leave my own human children behind, but I hadn't had a choice in that. Appius made it clear right away that mourning for my family and home was unacceptable, so I forced myself to move on as quickly as I was able.

If I had lived, I would have gone into battle with my sons but we all would have continued to live in the same small community, seeing each other daily until we died. So although I have experience in dealing with the intense grief of parting with family and loved ones, I'd been more of a passive participant than I was in this situation. I hadn't made the choice to let them go and that seems to be the hardest part of what was being asked of me now. So far at least.

This releasing Sookie, throwing her to the 'wolves' as it may be, seemed much too drastic in light of my millennium of existence where loved ones can be changed and kept by one's side for eternity. My life has not prepared me for being out of control, which ended when I parted with Appius. When I was with my maker, I learned the value of searching for, obtaining and maintaining control over every miniscule part of my world that might possibly affect me. Appius didn't let me act on the knowledge I gained, but I was always aware so I would be ready to act the minute he showed the first sign of weakness. Those around me, including my older brother by Appius, who gave up control, even for a moment, were no longer here to debate the pros and cons of being malleable and handing their futures over to the whims of fate. I needed to take a leap of faith in Sookie's ability to take care of herself, but the only thing I had faith in after all these years was myself.

I trusted her ability to take care of herself…about seventy percent. It was that other 30% where she let her heart get in the way or her inexperience put her at risk that I worried about most. She wasn't ready for me to let her go yet, there was so much more she needed to learn. I'd had over a hundred years before I parted with Pam and still I worry about her. I'd only had what amounted to days with this new version of my Sookie. I had so much I needed to tell her, teach her and show her. I hadn't had nearly enough time yet. I needed more.

What I needed was a better idea of when all these dangers would crash down on us. How soon would the fae and Wu attack? When would Sookie be facing a life threatening injury for which she would need her own blood? When was my deadline for figuring out what I needed to do before someone else did it? Did I have days? Weeks? Years?

I pulled her even closer to me, eager to enjoy this moment of quiet with her and tried to put aside my worries. I would do what I could in this situation. I would train her and I would seek the help of those I trusted to help in that training. I would contact the Britlingens to seek their help in our coming battles although every attempt I had made over the year that Sookie was with them had been denied. Perhaps I could get Sookie to seek their help despite her reports that they had made it clear that they remain neutral in this realm and never publicly side with the sera fae, arguing that it was imperative for the young sera fae to find his or her way in the world and not continue their dependence on the Britlingens. I found myself once again disturbed to find more evidence that most vampires were more nurturing and supportive than her blood relatives.

There had to be a balance that could work for her, something between they way they cut her off and my more hands on approach.

Speaking of hands, I ran mine gently along her bare shoulder and down to the curve at the base of her spine. Her breathing pattern altered briefly and then returned to the steady pattern of deep sleep. I was relieved to smell and feel that nothing had happened to her during the day. I could tell from her scent that she had followed my request and spent the day in Lahaina rather than Hana. She smelled of the city and of the tourists she had come into contact with instead of the flowery, clean scent she usually returned to me with after being in Hana.

I'd felt that she would be safer in a busy area, under the curious eyes of numerous tourists rather than all alone in Hana and thankfully, she hadn't argued. My blood within her told me that the main reason she didn't put up a fight was because she was so very fatigued and she'd been afraid that I'd try to keep her from going when we learned that Sheila wouldn't be able to join her.

She couldn't hide things like that from me anymore, but before she'd had my blood, she'd hidden the toll that her injury had taken on her, only showing signs of her blood loss when she was under extreme emotional stress while the demon was here. I'd wanted to rip his head off when he'd carelessly admitted that he was to blame for the deaths of her parents and then accused me of not taking good enough care of her after her injury. I could almost feel his fat neck in the grasp of my fingers even as I lay here with my love gently cradled in my arms. The thing that pissed me off the most was that he was right, I had neglected to feed her because I was so focused on celebrating that she was safe and because I couldn't feel her need. That wouldn't happen again.

I opened my eyes and gazed down at my beautiful wife. Her hair was spread across my chest and her face was relaxed in sleep. Her lips were parted and her cheeks were flushed from her day in the sun. My troubled mind saw not just her beauty in sleep, but also her vulnerability. My protective instincts reared up and I scanned the environment to ensure we were alone even though I had already reflexively done that as I woke. After being assured that we were alone except for Pam in her quarters, I relaxed and ran a finger up Sookie's arm and over her shoulder to the mouthwatering dip at the base of her neck.

Although I could feel her pulse jumping with every beat of her heart on any part of her body, it was here that her skin warmed and cooled under my finger most perceptibly. Each pulse wooed me, called to me and the urge to take her blood, her life force, into my body was almost overwhelming. With effort, I resisted the call and was amazed once again by the trust she put in me.

Hesitating just a moment, I carefully placed my fingertip on the chain of her necklace and smiled when there was only a slight warmth but no burning. Last night was the first time in over a thousand years that I had been able to hold silver in my bare hand. It signified to me not only the conquering of a major weakness inherent to all vampires, but the opening of a cage in which I had been trapped since rising as vampire.

I flinched inwardly as I recalled all too well the first time I learned of my sensitivity to silver. My maker had been sure to make my acquaintance with silver within the first few nights of my rising when I tried to resist his demands. The shock of the pain and accompanying weakness the silver caused is something I will never forget and the cruelty in which it had been wielded was something I had never forgiven. It was due to Sookie that I had been finally released from my maker's control and although she would say that she hadn't been the one to kill him, I would always be grateful to her for wanting to do what I could not.

One of the main reasons I was so upset that the Ancient Pythoness might be threatening that someone else might turn Sookie was because of my time with Appius. He certainly wasn't the worst maker, he was humane compared to some out there, but I don't even want to think about what some makers would do to break Sookie, especially if she didn't respond to the compulsion to follow commands as the rest of us have to do. She could not be glamoured and I hadn't been able to control her when we were bonded, so that led me to fear that she would be unresponsive to a maker's commands. One would think that would be a good thing, but it's not. If I turned her, I would use the ability to command her to help her to adjust and control herself, others would use it for less altruistic purposes.

The problem would be that whoever this other was, if there was one, would be stronger and faster than her and so would be able to physically dominate her even if they couldn't command her. They would find a way to break her and that is what I feared most. Having her turned by another wouldn't be so horrible if her maker was fair. In fact, the chances of us staying together and in love for the long run were better if she had another maker. I knew of only a few vampire couples, including Emelina and Gustavo, who remained together for longer than two hundred years when one turned the other.

I knew I shouldn't be so focused on this when there were so many other possibilities to the puzzle as Sookie called it, but I couldn't stop myself from worrying when I had the time. Most vampires could and would respect my claim of her as my wife and future bonded even though she smelled like the sweetest honey laced with the richest wine, but add in the magical capabilities of her blood and there would be any number of vampires who wouldn't be able to keep their fangs off her.

There was a time when I'd wanted to have Sookie agree to become vampire, but instead of preserving my sweet lover from age and infirmity, I would now feel as though I were destroying a perfect work of art. She was powerful, and most important to me, she was not aging, could heal quickly and was not susceptible to illness, so I would not lose her to the ravages of time or infirmity. Stealing what made her unique would be like allowing a child to draw on top of a Botticelli with crayons. No, I could never make her better than she already was right now.

I kissed the top of her head and took in a deep breath of her wondrous scent that was enhanced by the heat of the sunshine and every part of me roared with desire. If everything had gone as I'd planned last night, we would have been waking this evening together at our home rather than in this building towards which I felt such ambivalence. We would have been able to bond in absolute privacy and leave behind the worries of my kingdom. I would have been able to bite and actually pull her blood straight from her veins, having developed enough restraint to ensure that I would only take what was safe for her to give rather than risking both of our lives by losing control and attempting to drain her as I was so driven to do every time I smelled her blood.

It had taken incredible control for Pam, Will and James to keep their distance from her when she'd been injured in the fight. Of course her injury could easily have been avoided if we had remained on guard rather than allowing ourselves to get swept up by passion of the fight and the intoxicating scent of all the fairy blood on and around us. That major flaw negated any applause we earned by resisting her scent but told me that we were on the right track with desensitizing ourselves with exposure to her blood.

I'd ensured that every drop of fairy blood that was left on our weapons had been collected and preserved. We would each spend some time desensitizing ourselves to the scent so this would not occur again. Being able to tolerate casual contact with fairies was one thing, but if we were looking at a war, we needed to be able to resist their blood with ease. It was a weapon they could wield much too easily against us.

Thankfully, Sookie's training or survival instincts had kicked in and she defended herself admirably, taking down one fairy with her sword and the next with her fire. If I hadn't been so eager to tend to her wound and ensure that she would survive the attempted beheading, I would have taken time to admire how she literally turned a fairy into dust with a light touch of her hand.

I fan my fingers over the palm of her hand, remembering the feeling of her burning my chest in demonstration of her powers, and wondered how she was able to touch me with such love and cause such devastation the next minute with the same hands. The same could be said for mine, but I was seldom faced with someone stronger than myself and so I rarely had the occasion to be in awe of another creature, but here she was. She put vampires, most fairies and the half-demons I knew to shame when she allowed herself to reach her full potential.

Unfortunately, Niall was the most magical fairy I'd ever met and I was sure that if he were brave enough to face her, Sookie would not be assured a win especially since he would be aware that he could play the great-grandfather card with her and probably distract her just enough to gain the upper hand. I knew she had access to more abilities than she had shown me so far, some fairy-based and some sera fae, but I was hesitant to trust that she could call upon them while under stress. Even though she said she was putting Niall behind her, I wasn't sure she would be capable of that once she calmed down from the anxiety of the battle. Her heart generally directed her actions and history had taught me that this would be a very hard habit for her to break.

Sookie sighed and squirmed closer to me. Her breasts pressed against my side and chest and her center was hot against my thigh, beckoning me to enter her. I loved the feel of her body on mine but it was her warm breath, flowing from her partially open mouth and tickling my chest hairs that I treasured most at this moment. Her breathing pattern altered and she whispered, "I love you Eric," and I realized that I was wrong; it wasn't her breath I treasured most, but her…just her. I didn't care how she smelled, tasted or looked-all I needed was her. Everything else was just a bonus or a source of the most delicious kind of torture, depending on how you looked at it.

Tonight we would be meeting with the top-tier of my retinue and each of the vampires would crave her blood as desperately as I did and I definitely didn't have faith in their ability to control themselves. Just the thought of someone else touching, craving or biting Sookie made my fangs run out and I couldn't stop my hands from gripping my beautiful wife more securely to my chest. After a few seconds thought, I determined the best way to ensure that the seven vampires who would be present tonight would be better prepared to resist her. I just needed to get Sookie on board.

I relaxed my grasp on her, but her eyes fluttered open, focused on mine and a smile that both gave me hope and intensified my worries crossed her lips. Rolling us over, I caressed her skin and allowed my lips to travel from her forehead, down her cheek to her lips where I plundered her mouth relentlessly. I moved my mouth to her chin and she sighed deeply. Her sweet breath made my head spin and I stilled my body to keep from acting on my basest desires. "How was your day my love?" I asked once I was sure I had control of myself.

"Fine," she said as she rubbed her face along mine. "I've never spend a whole day on the beach in Lahaina, I forgot how busy it gets," she said simply making an observation, not blaming me for her location. I was relieved that I could still feel her emotions, it added so much to our conversation and I was eager for the time when she would be able to feel me once again.

"Have you recovered?" I asked. I'd already determined that she looked, sounded and smelled strong and healthy and I could tell that she had eaten well during the day, but I wanted to hear it straight from her.

"Yes. I came back a little earlier than usual. I couldn't keep my eyes open and I didn't feel safe sleeping there without Sheila to keep a lookout. I've been here…" she craned her neck as she stretched luxuriously and glanced at the clock, "about two hours, so I'm well rested too." That was another adjustment I'd have to make, adapting to her not needing to sleep much so long as she ate well and was able to go somewhere that she could recharge.

"Good," I said with a wicked smile as I scooped her up. "Come with me." She squirmed a little, but didn't protest when I swept through the sitting room and my office and then entered the secure labyrinth between our quarters and the meeting rooms, and then entered the smallest room.

"Eric! What are you doing?" she demanded breathlessly when I set her bare bottom down on the table in the center of the room and began to nibble on her lips while allowing my hands to wander over her bountiful body.

I broke from my actions, "I imagined that you would have been clear on how this process works by now," I said, teasing her.

She giggled and her eyes sparkled with mirth when I began to kiss and lick her jaw and neck, "Eric, wait…stop," but I could feel that she really didn't want me to stop. "I meant, why are you doing this here?"

I didn't stop kissing her, but spoke with my lips on her skin. "Will and James told me that they were able to resist you last night because of the time they spent in the training room with the scent of your blood, even though it was only for a brief period. I believe it would be prudent to offer the same preview to the vampires you will be meeting tonight."

She took a deep breath and I was sure that she was about to argue with me, but the fight drained out of her as she thought it over. At first, all she said was a long drawn out, "Oh," and then, "okay, that makes sense, but you have to catch every drop. I don't want to leave any behind for someone else to find."

I growled at the thought and pulled her closer to me, feeling her heart pumping her delicious and precious blood through her body. She pulled away, "Just blood. No sex here Eric."

I feigned a pout and she laughed until I ran my fangs along her shoulder to her neck. I could feel small goose bumps form in the wake of my touch. If my heart beat, it would be racing with the anticipation of piercing her skin. Instead, my body was on alert for dangers and I was taking in every reaction her body had to mine. I loved the power I had to make her writhe and beg for my attentions, reassured that I wasn't the only one who was completely enamored in this relationship.

Right at that moment she gasped as I let just the tips of my fangs sink into her hot skin and then I forced myself to sit back and watch as the blood slowly ran down her neck and pooled by her clavicle. I let it sit there for a few seconds before I kissed her forehead, both cheeks, lips and then slowly lapped up the few drops of the elixir of her life.

The second she was clean and I was sure the room reeked of her blood; I swept her off the table and draped her over my shoulder. She laughed and slapped at my naked butt as I carried her back to our bedroom. I returned the favor by giving her bottom a little nip, causing her to scream out loud in gleeful protest. She could get away from me easily if she wanted to, but we were both having too much fun.

I dropped her carefully on the bed, grabbed my phone and quickly sent a text to Pam detailing what I wanted to happen tonight in regards to the visiting vampires. Once that was taken care of, I returned all my attention to the naked woman lying in the middle of the bed, waiting patiently for me. The fact that she hadn't become irritated with me for dealing with business at a less than opportune time boded well for everything going smoothly with us when I was inundated with the responsibilities of my kingdom once again.

I licked my lips and allowed my eyes to linger on her as I contemplated where to begin. Sookie looked back at me with a steady gaze and just a touch of a smile. A tiny part of me missed the way she used to blush and squirm when I'd look at her intensely like this, but I loved her confidence too. When we were together before, she'd been a girl in terms of the way she viewed life and her body, now she was a woman. My woman.

My fangs, tongue, dick and fingers all twitched at the mere thought of exploring her hot body, but of all the parts of me that were vying to dig into her first, my blood was screaming the loudest. Tonight we would complete the second step in our bonding.

Before the great revelation, it was common to tie a human to you to provide a reliable source for food, sex and someone to act as liaison with the world during the daylight hours. This blood tie had been especially necessary back when the population was smaller and the towns spaced farther apart. I had tied numerous humans to me over my thousand years, but I had bonded with only one and she was staring up at me with her sky blue eyes.

I had heard over the years from others who had bonded with their human mates that it was an experience that almost rivaled that of making a child, but that experience had been stolen from me the first time around. The night Andre tried to force a blood tie with Sookie so he could have control over her the way we controlled other humans, I'd known that I needed to intervene. If Andre found out that Sookie was free to leave Louisiana at any time, he would have imprisoned or killed her to keep her from becoming an asset to another kingdom. When I determined our only way out, I knew that I would be seriously cheating both of us by bonding in that hallway. Unfortunately, I knew that I had no choice if I wanted to spare her freedom and my existence and so we did what had to be done. Thankfully Sookie had enough trust in me and momentary good sense to catch on to the seriousness of the situation, but I knew how very upset the experience had made her.

This time, our bonding would be as different from that as night was from day and I would ensure that I wasn't the only one who noticed the difference.


	42. Chapter 42

A/N: Last chapter I made the huge oversight of forgetting to thank my wonderful beta, Charhamblin (sorry Char, you're the best!) and all of you who have been reviewing and giving me advice and support. Big thanks go out to Jennifer and Racecz5 for letting me talk you 'ear' off and for giving me support when I hit the rough patches.

0-0-0-0

"You're nervous," I said as I ushered Sookie into the room where I'd had her meet Maeve. It was a good space to house small gatherings, warm enough to allow Sookie to relax, but empty enough for ample defensive measures if they were needed.

She turned around to face me with a gentle smile on her beautiful face and I ran my thumb down her cheek. She was gorgeous in the dark mauve three quarter length silk dress she was wearing that I'd asked Pam to pick up for her for this evening. The dress didn't have any of the hidden weapons that Miriam's clothing had and I knew Sookie felt uncomfortable without them, but I was proud of her when I saw that she had added ample silver and iron jewelry and hair accessories.

She went one step further than the jewelry and so we'd had trouble leaving the room after I watched her strap a thin dagger to one thigh and a sharp stake to the other. I literally had to swallow my drool at the sight of the leather straps wrapped snuggly around her thighs, one crossing the direct path of where my fangs had punctured her skin only minutes before. My fingers itched to rip away the silk that hid this particular delight from my view and I was sure it would drive me crazy all night long knowing what my hands would find later in the evening. Discrete weapons on a feminine form were so incredibly sexy.

Before Sookie could answer me, Will and James entered the room laughing about something, but sobered quickly when they saw we were already there.

"Are you ready?" Will asked me. I nodded and noted that he gave Sookie's jewelry an irritated glare as he left the room to serve as escort for the visiting vampires. Clearly not everyone agreed with my sentiments about Sookie's jewelry, especially because the majority of it was silver. I would have expected her to feel guilty, but she didn't even flinch. She held her head high, finally choosing to take care of herself at the potential expense of someone else. I couldn't stop the smirk that formed across my lips and I saw James' lip twitch at the corner too as he placed a heavy hand on my shoulder.

"I pity a man whose woman must go to such extremes to keep him at arm's length. You should have told me you were having such troubles brother; I would have given you some obviously much needed advice," he said, looking at me with mock empathy. I shook my head and just barely resisted rolling my eyes at him. Instead, I pulled Sookie to me and kissed her cheek. James winked at me merrily and persisted, looking now at my lover, "Sookie, if you are in need of assistance or simply a diversion to keep this mongrel at bay, I would be happy to offer my aid," he said with a stiff bow, "I know how stifling his constant presence can be."

Sookie laughed and a beautiful pink blush colored her cheeks. I'd missed that blush and reached out to touch her cheek once again, enjoying the feel of her skin heating under my fingers. I knew it wasn't James' attentions that made her blush, but the bow. She'd always hated being put on a pedestal, and even now when she deserved to be revered by others, she withdrew from the attention. It was nice to find something that still made her blush, but to play my part, I glared at James and possessively ran my other hand up the back of Sookie's thigh, feeling the weapon strapped there and driving myself absolutely crazy with want.

Sookie's emotions purred at my touch, but her face remained amused. "I don't think I'll be needing any help in that department James, but thanks for watching out for me," she said, deliberately brushing herself against my already strained pants. I growled quietly and fought to resist my desire to take her right then and there, not only to avoid being lectured by my wife, but more importantly to keep the cat in the proverbial bag as to my resistance to the silver she was wearing. I wouldn't spread her out on the small table or take her up against the wall the way I wanted to, but I had to at least taste her mouth again.

I ran my hands up the sides of her neck, gently urging her toward me. It wasn't hard to avoid touching her jewelry, even if it was only for show, I'd spent hundreds of years carefully avoiding silver without bringing my evasive actions to anyone's attention. It was a necessary skill to learn for playing the part of a human, and I was good at it.

Sookie turned around and accepted my kiss and then her sparkling eyes swept up my tight charcoal pants while her hand trailed down the front of my deep blue button down shirt. I'd suggested that we dress up for tonight, just to set the right tone with these higher-ranking vampires. Typically I kept things casual, relying on my reputation and presence to compensate for my favored jeans and t-shirt. There was no way I was willing to sit around every night in boring meetings while wearing uncomfortable clothing. My nights were often interminable as they were, so I would dress the way I wanted unless there was a good reason to do otherwise.

Besides, my jeans and t-shirt displayed some of my best assets, my strength and intimidating build and that alone often worked to keep others in line. It was better for those who doubted me to learn that there was intelligence behind the t-shirt rather than test me to find out if there were muscles behind the dress shirt. It was just easier that way.

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy dressing up, I did. I appreciated the pomp and circumstance of important moments, they broke up the monotony of the years and I knew I carried it off well whereas others looked like idiots in a tux. Now that Sookie was with me, I'd have to make sure to fabricate more reasons to get her in a gown in the near future. She was a vision in this relatively simple dress and I'd have to work hard to keep my hands off her until we found some privacy. Simply the thought of her small hands working the buttons of my dress shirt tested my restraint and it didn't help that Sookie was having similar desires to mine since I was awash with both of our needs.

The good thing about my predicament was that I could feel and see that James and I had effectively eased Sookie's nerves and I gave him a covert smile of thanks. He had always been skilled at the art of not only seduction, but also reading women and knowing just what to say to get them to relax and smile just as I was. He was incredibly intelligent and well studied in historical as well as modern science and social points of interest, claiming that he needed to keep up with the times to carry on conversations with the ladies of any particular decade. Despite this, he kept his Scottish accent and courtly manner of speaking that many of the women today loved.

I agreed that keeping up with technology, modern dress and customs was necessary for integration into society, but my reasoning was for survival, not purely for a fuck and a feed. I played my part when I had to or when I was intrigued, but James really enjoyed the game and had managed to bed and keep as companions numerous women from royal families across the world and the years. I'd always preferred the quiet beauties, the talented, amusing or intelligent women who lived less high profile lives. Royals took too much of my time and effort and were too much trouble. Wooing high profile women had always been more of a job to me than the source of pleasure it was for James.

I think that was one of the differences that drew Appius to James. My maker had tired of my lack of interest in the games he enjoyed playing. While James didn't share Appius' joy for domination and cruelty, he did enjoy the effort of the hunt much more than I, and so he was a source of much entertainment to Appius.

I looked back at Sookie when I felt her gentle good humor replaced by surprise and awe. She was clearly listening to something James was thinking about and since he suddenly looked surprised before taking on a cocky and slightly aroused stance I'd seen hundreds of times, it was clear to me what the topic of their silent conversation must be.

"You didn't," Sookie said out loud, sounding scandalized. James simply nodded and then smiled widely when Sookie asked incredulously, "All of them?" Then Sookie turned a little green and she said in a smaller voice, "Appius too?" James' smile faded slightly but he nodded again. "Oh yuck," she groaned and I felt her disgust through the bond.

"Enough," I said firmly and James shrugged and took his position in the room.

Sookie studied me for a long moment, looking at me in a new way. I could almost feel her imagining me in the type of clothing I'd worn centuries ago and participating in whatever exploits James had been reliving at that particular moment. I found myself filled with anger toward James for whatever he'd told her about himself that made her question my past behaviors. I had never told her much about my history; wanting to keep her from thinking about me in terms of the actions I'd taken to survive, fill the long nights, explore being a vampire or follow my maker's commands. She knew that the darker side of me existed but didn't need to see my memories of it and she certainly didn't need to be seeing James' memories either. I'd told him that he should share all pertinent information about the kingdom and our safety with her, but I would be speaking to him about his need for discretion.

This shouldn't be happening right now anyway; we already had too much going on to be dragging up even more for Sookie to deal with tonight. I'd done everything I could to control this process so there was no reason for Sookie to be worried. Not only had my sheriffs and other top vampires been exposed to her scent for over three hours, but Pam and I had also briefed all of them thoroughly about Sookie's return and her place at my side as my wife. I'd also made it absolutely clear that there would be no breaches of conduct tolerated tonight.

In preparation for their arrival, I stood tall and stepped to her side, tucked away all my emotions and slipped back into my role as king. The minute I stepped away from her, I could feel her tension and anxiety returning. I gave James an irritated glare, which he ignored and moved a little closer to her, so our arms were touching. I tried to press my confidence and calm on her, but she didn't respond, even to bat it away like she had so many times before. It wasn't too surprising, we'd only completed two of our three steps toward bonding, but I wanted that connection now.

I hated to say it, but I preferred sharing her thoughts with her at this point, I was much better able to impact her reactions in that way. Unfortunately, unless I wanted to press my thoughts on her, which she absolutely abhorred and I had promised not to do again, she had to initiate that exchange and she was often reluctant to let me into her mind. I abhorred not being in control of any situation and hoped that once the bond was complete, I would be once again be able to warn her of danger or help her control her instinctual responses.

She nodded and took a deep breath, catching my drift even if she couldn't feel my emotions, and I felt her anxiety decrease a little. I quickly glanced around the room again, making sure everything was as I wanted. I'd moved all the furniture to the sides of the room so there was a clear pathway from the doorway to the opposite wall where I had Sookie situated. At first, I'd suggested she sit next to me so she didn't tire out, but she wanted to be mobile and able to react quickly. Sitting made her feel trapped and I was proud of her for fighting for what she felt was best, especially since I knew she was right. I was more aware now of the things I was doing that might be holding her back. Being aware didn't mean I would avoid doing those things, but that I might not drag my heels quite as much when she fought for her autonomy.

She wouldn't have to fight tonight. She would be safe; no one would touch her, I was sure of that. Not only was she fully recovered and well able to defend herself, but I would have James and hopefully Sheila in the room and Will would be escorting each vampire from the waiting room. Pam wasn't here since she was busy arranging the last minute details for the rest and more enjoyable part of Sookie and my evening. Nothing unexpected would happen tonight, but I was prepared nonetheless and I knew that Sookie was prepared as well.

As I surveyed the room, Sheila walked in, nodded to me and took her position on the opposite side of us from James. I watched her movement pattern and tested the air but couldn't discern any traces of her injury. "Your recovery is complete?" I asked her with a demanding voice. The last thing we needed was a guard who was unable to do her job. I felt Sookie question the tone of my voice, but she'd have to get used to it. This is the way I was as king and although I was generally more relaxed with the top tier of my retinue, I still expected everyone to heed my words.

Sheila slowly turned to me, withdrew her sword from its sheath with her right hand and waited for me to gesture for her to continue. When I raised an eyebrow at her, she tossed the sword to her left hand and did a series of fast and powerful cuts, thrusts and sweeps along her range of motion. She finished, tossed the sword back to her right hand and replaced it in the scabbard with a satisfied smirk on her face. I too was satisfied and I told her so with a small nod of my head.

Last night, after the unusual events of the evening, I'd fed Sookie again and then kept our tour brief, only showing her the offices of the individuals we would be meeting tonight who worked in this building and then made a quick trip up to see James and Sheila. James, of course was fine, having bounced back from his injury with a quick trip to the club with Will to find a willing donor. Sheila's wound had been deep and although she had begun to heal, she was still in pain.

Sookie had spent more time with Sheila than I was willing to give but she'd glared at me when I'd tried to interrupt their conversation. I was caught off guard when I felt the true affection that was growing within Sookie for this abrasive shifter and decided then that I needed to help Sookie meet more women if she was this eager to make friends.

Not that there was anything horribly wrong with Sheila, I tolerated her, and even occasionally enjoyed her attitude but that was as far as I'd seen anyone get with her. I didn't know of anyone she considered a friend. I appreciated that Sheila said what she thought, never holding back and Pam, Will and James liked that she was absolutely devoted to us and included all of us into her pack mentality, but we certainly weren't friends. So I was amazed to see, from the look in her eyes, that it appeared that she had finally allowed Sookie into the small and unusual pack she had formed here in my retinue, and in Sookie's mind that would make her a friend. I shook my head, chuckling to myself that Sookie was still picking up strays. Luckily, I was sure that unlike Herveaux, Tara or Quinn, Sheila would not be putting Sookie in the way of more trouble than she already found herself in on her own.

Four years ago, we'd been searching for someone who could be the head of our daytime security team and Sheila handled that responsibility perfectly without losing the focus on what her primary focus was at the time…me. Her predecessor had not been nearly as capable as Sheila proved herself to be and I made sure to reward her with significant bonuses to her already impressive salary. I learned quickly that it wasn't money she wanted, but responsibility and respect and I gave both of those to her as freely as was prudent.

Now Sheila's focus was on Sookie and I'd happily search for another shifter to take her place as the head of our security here during the day. It wouldn't be easy to find a good replacement, but I was sure we'd be successful. Maybe she could refer me to another part-demon shifter since she had proven to be so much more resilient than ordinary shifters.

One of the truly useful things about Sheila was that she rarely asked for time off except for evenings during the full moon and she could work almost around the clock. All she needed was a few hours of sleep a day thanks to her demon blood, so she would be able to accompany Sookie to Hana and then join us in whatever evening pursuits we had following three or four hours of sleep. Plus she could rest in the hours after dawn here but before Sookie could go to Hana, if she didn't spend her time sparring with her charge instead.

My phone beeped, bringing me out of my quiet thoughts or as Sookie would call it, down time, and two seconds later, the door opened revealing Will and my sheriff from Area One. She was dressed for the occasion in a knee length dark green skirt and light gray blouse. She trained her large dark brown eyes directly on me as she entered the room. Good girl.

Will walked by her side, appearing to be relatively relaxed and the tension that had filled the room faded a bit as I realized that our strategy with the blood had worked. Sookie would be blocking her scent when she met other vampires, but we had decided that it was important for this top-level of vampires to know her scent in case she was hurt when with them.

I stepped forward and my sheriff bowed deeply, her long dark hair momentarily curtaining her face. "Your Majesty," she said in her rich tenor voice that still betrayed her Spanish descent.

I nodded back, just a slight movement of my head, and she stood straight. Only then did her eyes flicker over to Sookie. I put my hand on the small of Sookie's back and said, "Sookie, this is Solveig María Izquierdo de Gómez, but she prefers to be referred to as Sol." Sookie smiled at her as I continued, "Sol, this is my wife and soon to be bonded, Sookie Stackhouse." Sol nodded deeply to Sookie, but remained silent, studying Sookie with a look of slight confusion in her eyes as she tried to figure out what type of creature she was looking at. I kept my gaze on Sol, but spoke to Sookie, "Sol is the sheriff of Area One, here in New Orleans."

Sookie smiled again, "It's a pleasure to meet you Sol," she said but once again, got nothing in return.

I knew immediately what was happening. "Sol," I said to my old friend with warning thick in my voice, "take a breath." She locked her gaze on me once more and I watched as her nose flared and her chest rose. Her face and eyes softened with want and her fangs ran out, followed quickly by her tongue, which darted to her lips momentarily, but her eyes never once moved from mine. I could feel the desire rolling off her and I empathized with her struggle, but to her credit, she didn't even flinch. "Again," I demanded and she complied.

After her fourth or fifth breath, she slowly turned to look at Sookie again and I saw her eyes begin to dilate but she shook her head and her eyes cleared when I let out a low warning growl.

It only took about three minutes all together, but I could tell that Sookie felt as though it had been much longer before Sol began to move in a more relaxed manner and finally spoke to Sookie. "It is a pleasure to meet you…" she glanced at me, "how would you prefer I refer to your…wife, Majesty?"

Uh oh. I felt Sookie tense next to me and a spear of jealousy ran through her as she picked up on the same hesitation from Sol that I had perceived. In fact, it was clear that she was getting a lot more from Sol than I had, and from her reaction, I knew exactly what that was.

I'd known Sol for about four hundred years and we had on occasion turned to one another physically. The last time this happened was right after she'd answered my request for her to relocate here and take on the role of my sheriff. It was simply a means of reacquainting ourselves with one another and an outlet for me to release some of my darker emotions that I could not with a human. It hadn't happened again, but apparently she felt some form of ownership of me because Sookie's possessiveness was increasing along with her anger.

I ran my hand down Sookie's temple and while my fingers were under her hair, I tapped on her head. She caught my drift immediately and opened her mind to me. While I was dismayed to confirm my suspicions about Sol's thoughts, I was gratified to hear my wife's jealousy and possessiveness more clearly. I loved that she was willing to fight for me and that she was eager to bond so she would have a physical claim of me.

My humor faded when she shot at me, _'Did you share blood with her?' _she demanded mentally.

_'No, my wife,'_ I thought back at her, _'I have only shared blood with six vampires…my maker, my two children, Will and two others a king bid me to heal when I was young, but those two are no longer a concern._'

This knowledge seemed to appease her just enough for her to continue the act, _'Go ahead, answer her question,'_ she encouraged me and then cut me out of her mind. I just barely managed to refrain from grinding my teeth together in frustration, I hated when she shut me out like that.

Turning back to Sol, I noted with relief that she hadn't picked up on our silent conversation, so I continued on as though nothing had happened. "You will refer to her as Sookie. She is to be known to all as Sookie Stackhouse, my bonded wife." I felt some tension roll off Sookie's body when I said this. She'd debated for a long time, whether she would take my last name, but I knew right away that she would want to hold onto the Stackhouse name. I felt it was important for her to do so as well, but still she'd struggled with it. The traditional part of her wanted to take my name, but she didn't want to lose that small part of her history that she still had. In the end, it didn't matter to her if she wasn't really a Stackhouse by blood, she was a Stackhouse and Hale by upbringing and that is what had grounded her in her life.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Sookie Stackhouse," Sol said in a flat and controlled voice. I raised an eyebrow at her and she seemed to realize that she was embarrassing herself, so she put a little effort into her greeting and this time Sookie got a very small smile from her.

This could become a problem, but I didn't anticipate that it would. Sol and I had worked closely together over the last sixteen years and never once did she make a move in my direction after that one time when she had first arrived. It wasn't like her to dwell on her emotions or to let something like this get in the way of an old friendship, but I would be keeping a close watch on her to ensure that my instincts were correct. Sookie would be able to 'hear' if anything was amiss as well since Sol was frequently in the building attending meetings.

After a brief discussion about absolutely pertinent events that had occurred in her area during my absence, I dismissed Sol and she left with a bow for me, and a deep nod for Sookie.

As soon as the door shut behind her, Sookie released a huge sigh of relief. "You killed both of the vampires who had your blood? Why?"

"It was a risk I could not take. Once a vampire has your blood, they can find you and even influence you if they are older, as they were. It would have been unwise to allow them to continue on after they'd had my blood." Her eyes flickered partway to Will and back to mine in silent question. "Will and I had been friends for many years and he was injured saving my life. I gave him my blood to preserve the friendship and pay the blood debt I owed him for helping me. I consider Will to be family as much as James is my family," I explained, happy that Will was out of the room at the moment. We never spoke of those occurrences, but helped each other out whenever we were able.

"This is going to be happening a lot, isn't it?" she asked, looking unhappy.

"What are you referring to?"

"This…learning about you and your past from…James, Sol…and others."

"Yes, I imagine that will happen frequently, I have lived a long life, there's no way I could tell you all about it even if I wanted to," I said and she nodded sadly.

"Are you upset about Sol?" I asked, needing to know her thoughts.

"No," she answered impatiently, "the past is in the past. I'm just worried that she might not accept…us without some trouble."

"I will not allow that," I said, "she has no claim over me and has never shown any desire to seek one out. I will give her some time to adjust, but we will both watch her closely." Sookie nodded and gave me a real smile.

"We were right then…to keep things casual," she said, gesturing to herself.

I kissed her forehead, "You know that I think of you as my Queen," I said.

"Yes, and that's more than enough for me," she responded with a relieved smile. I'd briefly considered presenting her to my retinue as my Queen, it would have to be accepted since she wasn't human anymore. In the end, we'd both agreed that doing so would open up for public debate the question of what she actually was if she wasn't human, and in the end, we both agreed that it would be best for her to fly under the radar as much as she could.

If taking the title of Queen would have strengthened us in some way, she would have done it, but there was nothing to gain from forcing those who had pledged fealty to me to call her their Queen. Sookie was concerned that it would anger them since she was convinced they would perceive her as being less than them, but I knew that anyone who saw her would immediately know that she was a highly magical being and worthy of great respect. She had never and still did not see herself clearly.

I did. I had always known how unique she was, even when she was just a talented human with a few drops of fairy blood. I had brought her to my side, everything I had was hers and every vampire who owed me fealty would honor her. I had promised her this the night we made plans for the Witch War and I would make this her reality whether or not she had the title of Queen.

Will returned a few minutes later with the Area Two sheriff, Micah Haberstroh. Unlike Sol, I'd had no prior relationship with Micah, not many vampires did since he'd been vampire for less than forty years. He'd made his client, a three hundred year old vampire, rich in the stock market and then accepted her offer to be turned as a reward for his services to her. It certainly didn't hurt that by turning him, she ensured that she would never lose his financial acumen so it was a win-win situation for both of them.

I'd been incredibly lucky to have met Alisha, his maker, a century before, and had tried to get her to be my sheriff so I could benefit from her child's talents. Sadly, she'd declined, saying that she preferred to work in the background. She did, however, offer Micah and I accepted the financial guru despite his young age. Of course I put him in my least populated area, and his second was frequently in charge since Micah was often traveling around advising other areas. Those who had sworn fealty to him considered him to be a fair leader, but I'd had to intervene in his area more than in any other. I didn't mind, it was a price I was willing to pay for his services and one I had foreseen given his youth.

Micah was, as always, impeccably dressed and his light brown hair was perfectly coiffed. Pam considered him to be the epitome of what she called a metrosexual and I had received multiple request from Russell Edgington to have him vacation at his home in Mississippi to entertain his household. I wasn't excited at the idea of sharing his talents with Russell, but since it was a request for a social call, I had left it up to him and his maker. Russell knew better than to try and steal what was mine. As far as I knew, Micah had yet to brave that male dominated environment and I couldn't blame him after having been caught up in it myself while Sookie and I were searching for Bill.

It was clear right away that Sookie was not impressed with Micah, in fact, she was stepping back and reaching for her dagger before the door had slid shut behind him. Her action alerted us of a problem before Micah even moved, so James had a head start and he and Will had the younger vampire restrained by the arms before Micah even took a full breath.

I quickly stepped in front of Sookie and accepted a dagger from Sheila. Sookie wound her free hand around my left arm and squeezed it tightly and I felt her concern for Micah and the situation. I knew what she must be hearing from him. I could see the desire and the pain that came from wanting…needing to drink burning in his green eyes. Sheila brought him a large glass of donated blood and held it for him as he gulped it down as though he hadn't already had five pints in the last three hours. When the glass was emptied, and his eyes cleared a little I grazed my hand across Sookie's fingers, encouraging her to let me go.

I kept my gaze steady and heavy on Micah as I gave Sheila the dagger and I savored the slight tinge of fear that began to break through his cloud of bloodlust. I stalked towards him, stopping when I was towering over his body with my larger one. I gestured slightly and Will and James stepped back, leaving me to glare down at my youngest sheriff.

Micah made the mistake of looking over at Sookie the minute he was released and found himself flat on his back on the floor the next second. I squeezed his throat and dug my knee into his chest, lowering my head until I was an inch from his. "You are my youngest sheriff, so I will give you more time to adapt to the scent of my wife. Allow no more mistakes, Micah, if you make one move toward her, you will not survive to regret it," I hissed at him.

His eyes twitched around the room, seemingly looking for something, but luckily for him, never once fell on Sookie.

Suddenly, Sookie was in my mind, _'Eric, give him more blood…he needs more.'_

"Blood," I said to Will as I nodded to Micah and within two minutes, I was handing Will back the empty glass and I heard Sookie putting away her dagger so I knew she was satisfied with what she was hearing. I stood up and took a step back, giving him some room and watched as he slowly and shakily stood up and bowed deeply to me and then to Sookie.

His eyes had cleared and on my command, he had eventually been able to put his fangs away. Although he never recovered his normal cocky attitude, I was satisfied when I could see that his mind had begun whirling again, calculating the possible cost or benefit of my marriage to the solvency of the kingdom. When I finally allowed him to leave, he gave me a look that told me I was in for a long meeting regarding strategies Sookie and I should undertake to make sure we came out on top of this 'situation'. I felt Sookie stifle a sigh and knew she must have gleaned that a similar fate was in her future as well.

Although I found his take on our union to be distasteful, it was his job to think about how everything affected the financial well-being of the kingdom way and we needed to let him at least present his ideas. Sookie's harassed expression made me chuckle and earned me a smack on the arm, releasing some of our tension from the difficult encounter with Micah. Now she would find out for herself what I had been doing for the last sixteen years and why I hated meetings so much.

After a short break during which I made sure everyone had something to drink, I re-introduced her to Maxwell, my sheriff of Area Four, who used to work under me in Area Five. Although he had been vampire for only ninety years, he had a very controlled and pragmatic personality. Even before the revelation, his darker skin and absolute self-control had allowed him to attend night school to become an investment banker. He handled Sookie's scent well, just like he rolled with most of the challenges that he faced, but required my repeated assurances to believe that she was who I said she was. He, like myself, had a hard time believing that she could have changed so much, not just in the way she looked, but also the power she exuded.

Once Maxwell left, Will ushered in Henry Frederick, my replacement in Area Five. Sookie gave me a knowing smile and it was clear she saw why I had selected Henry to run the area that housed first one and now two of the most lucrative bars outside of New Orleans.

Henry looked to be just eighteen years old and still had the slightly effeminate beauty in body and face of an older boy who had not yet reached full maturity. Henry was the son of king and had met his untimely end in the early 1600s due to an illness and was given a second chance by a vigilant vampire who had taken up residence in the castle. Over four hundred years later, Henry still maintained his royal demeanor in dress and presentation and managed to make any setting seem like a royal court. He brought a whole new feel to the bars under his charge and had made Area Five a huge draw for tourists and fangbangers alike. He craved the spotlight and loved being fawned over by the crowds, it was a perfect fit for him and my kingdom benefitted from his presence. I wasn't the least bit jealous that he had made more of the bar than I had. Let him have it, I didn't want it anymore.

Unfortunately, one of the things Henry didn't have was an ability to turn off the thick veneer of charm he presented when I was around and my fangs ran out as he attempted to kiss Sookie's hand. My most recognized sheriff simply responded to my warning growl with a flicker of his fingers and a quiet and practiced chuckle. He didn't worry me, he was too intelligent and valued his existence too much to cause trouble with me, plus I knew he preferred men, so my Sookie would definitely not interest him sexually. None the less, I let him know in no uncertain terms, that if he attempted to touch my wife again, he would be seeing my less civil side.

Henry finally left after spending much more time with us than any of the other sheriffs besides Micah and the minute the door closed, Sookie laughed out loud. "Holy crap Eric, where did you find him? Being in his mind is like watching a Shakespearian circus. He's brilliant in his own way as well as selfish and greedy, but he's also a huge coward and very much like a child. It's crazy."

"Do we have anything to worry about with him?" I asked, really enjoying this glimpse into vampire minds that she had never been able to give me before.

"Well, he's thinking about how he's going to get a little sip of me, but his plans are half-assed and since he's scared shitless of you and our guards, I'd be shocked if he ever acted on them."

My fangs ran out when she said he wanted to taste her blood and I noted that James' did too, but she laughed it off. "Please, Eric. If I can't protect myself against him, I'm in really big trouble. You know as well as I do that he's too much of a coward to do anything that might risk his existence."

I agreed with her but it wouldn't hurt to scare him a little once in a while to make sure he stayed in line.

Will finally brought in Thalia, my sheriff of Area Three. I'd expected to see her here after Micah, but something had delayed her. I was slightly taken aback at the sight of my generally reserved and severe sheriff. Tonight, unlike most nights, she had her hair loose and draped across her shoulders. Typically she pulled it back into a long bundle at the base of her neck. This softer styling, combined with her flowing white dress and large necklace made of pounded circles of gold that sat flat on her chest and gold bracelets that appeared to wind up her wrists almost to her elbows, presented the picture of a woman from another time.

I felt Sookie's recognition of Thalia and then heard her gasp in shock as their eyes met. I didn't have a clue as to what was going on, but if Sookie was unnerved, then so was I. I pulled her behind me again and grabbed the dagger, holding it at the ready while my fangs ran out and I let loose with a loud warning growl. My response to Thalia was more violent than how I had reacted to Micah because Thalia presented us with a serious thereat given her age.

By the time Sookie released her breath, Will had brought his dagger to Thalia's neck, James was in front and to the left of me and Sheila covered Sookie's back. Thalia did nothing but stand still and stare at Sookie, who was peeking around my back to maintain eye contact with Thalia.

I began to take a step closer to Thalia when Sookie pulled at me and said, "Please don't." I could feel and hear desperation coming from her and one glance at her told me that she was worried, not for herself, but for Thalia.

I looked at her and although she didn't return my gaze, she nodded emphatically, assuring me that she was not in danger. I waited a few more seconds, taking in every bit of information I could about the situation and when I found nothing that seemed threatening, I gestured to the guards to step back. I moved one step to the side, allowing Sookie to see Thalia without effort and understood that they were engaged in an ongoing, yet silent conversation.

"Sookie," I said and allowed warning to pepper my voice. Thalia should not know that Sookie could read her mind. She was the oldest vampire in my kingdom and one of the most private and fierce vampires I had ever met, so her knowing that Sookie could read her mind was a very bad thing.

Sookie grasped my wrist tightly without even looking at me. "Eric, we need to speak with Thalia privately. She poses no threat to us." From the focused and flat tone of her voice, if I didn't know better, I would have thought that Thalia had glamoured her, but I did know better. At least I thought I did.

"Sookie, look at me," I demanded. I needed to see her eyes to confirm what I was feeling from her and I saw it when she finally tore her gaze from Thalia's. There it was, excitement, disbelief, anticipation and happiness. Although none of those emotions made sense based on the very limited relationship they'd had before Sookie left Louisiana, I was slightly reassured. I gestured to the guards and they left with Will once again providing Sookie with a sword and James giving me his sword and the panic button to keep in my pocket. I was not happy when Sookie placed her sword on the floor and kicked it behind her a foot or two, but in the mix of emotions I could feel whirling through her, not one of them was fear.

The door slid shut behind the guards and Thalia bowed to me, saying, "Good evening, Your Majesty." Then she nodded deeply to Sookie and said with as big a smile as I had ever seen on her usually severe face, "Welcome back, my Kaikaina."


	43. Chapter 43

_A/N: Thanks so much to my beta Charhamblin and to all of you who reviewed. Wow, what an absolutely wonderful response you gave last chapter…thank you!_

_There's a lot of information in this chapter and I based it as much as I could on historical records and stories. I've added pictures and links to some of the websites I used to gather this information to my terribly maintained wordpress site choices2make. I also added some extra information on Will and Henry._

_-SVM belongs to CH, the rest of this mess is my fault._

_***The Hawaiian word Kane is pronounced as Kah-ne not cane as in candy cane. It has a few meanings but the reason I selected to use it here was that one website said that it means 'creator.' ***_

_0-0-0-0-0-0-0 _

_The door slid shut behind the guards and Thalia bowed to me, saying, "Good evening, Your Majesty." Then she nodded deeply to Sookie and said with as big a smile as I had ever seen on her usually severe face, "Welcome back, my Kaikaina."_

Chapter 43 Thalia

It was as though I wasn't even in the room. These two women stared at each other with such unguarded happiness and what I could only call relief, that my head swam with confusion and worry. It wasn't until Sookie took a few steps toward Thalia with her hands outstretched that I intervened.

"Stop," I said to both of them as I blocked her progress with a sweep of my arm. I pulled out my phone with my other hand and pressed two buttons without taking my eyes off Thalia. Four seconds later, the door opened and Will entered. "Send everyone home, Sookie will meet up with the others tomorrow night. Tell Pam that our plans for later tonight are still on and to have everything ready for us." Will nodded, glancing quickly at Thalia and Sookie before leaving.

I put away my phone and led Sookie to the opposite side of the room where I pulled the love seat and a chair away from the wall, positioning them so they faced one another. I encouraged Sookie to sit beside me and then gestured for Thalia to take the chair opposite us. She did so, her jewelry clinking together quietly as she sat on the edge of the seat in an exited rather than threatening manner. Sookie's posture was similar and her grasp on my hand was getting tighter as the seconds passed. I had no clue what was going on, but I was going to find out.

"Explain," I said to Thalia, keeping my voice hard, I had to keep the upper hand although I was out of the loop in this situation and probably the weakest being here when looking at pure power and ability.

Thalia's eyes swept around the room, "This space is secure?" she asked, looking directly at my hidden camera. It wasn't and she knew that already so I removed my phone again and tapped into the security system, taking the room off the grid so to speak. It wasn't unusual to have to do this, there was much I said to others that I didn't want to have any record of, even in my own security system.

I put my phone back in my pocket and raised my eyebrows at her impatiently. Thalia hesitated, seemingly struggling with deciding where to begin. I helped her, "You called Sookie, '_Kaikaina_,' what does that mean?" I felt Sookie in my mind, trying to give me some of what she had gleaned from Thalia, but I pushed her mind away from mine. "No," I said firmly, "I must hear it from her." I needed to hear any words that affected Sookie so much directly from the source so I could determine the veracity of the information for myself.

Thalia licked her lips, looked at Sookie and then met my gaze again, "Kaikaina means 'little sister'," she said with finality, her lips turning up at the corners. Her sister? Not her human sister but fairy or sera fae? Was that possible? I froze, processing this information and the interactions of the two women and then gestured with my hand, letting her know clearly that she was expected to be more forthcoming.

"I will tell you all," she said, the joy in her eyes fading a little bit, "but I am…unaccustomed to speaking of such things." I could tell from her expression that what she had to say was of great importance to her and to us, so I allowed Sookie to pull me back in the seat a little, giving Thalia some space. Vampires as old as Thalia and myself rarely spoke of our personal histories and given the way Thalia was dressed, that was the way this conversation would be going.

After a minute of thought, Thalia said, "Sookie is not my sister from our human origins as you well know, however we are of the same bloodline." She looked over at Sookie and the smile returned to her lips. I could feel the excitement returning to Sookie again and I struggled to contain the situation, Thalia could simply be trolling for information about Sookie's heritage.

"And what bloodline would that be?" I demanded.

"Pele's of course, we are both of the sera fae," she said and tapped the side of her forehead the way Sookie did when she referred to her telepathy.

I couldn't stop my reaction, my fangs ran out and my body tensed for battle at the thought of her having access to all my thoughts…all my thoughts…all these years. She hadn't simply been a recipient of Sookie's enhanced telepathy earlier as James had been; she'd been actively reading our minds. She held up a hand, "Don't worry, as Sookie said, I am not a threat. I came to Louisiana and pledged my fealty to you first as sheriff and later as king because I see through the lies to the motivations beneath and in you, I found someone with whom I was comfortable following. When I narrowed my eyes in disbelief, she clarified, "You, unlike many others, gave me my space, never forced your 'affections' on me and all I had to do was put up with the fangbangers once a week and now manage things as sheriff. I am content working for you," she admitted.

"And yet, you did not tell me the truth," I accused, still adjusting to the idea that she had been hearing my thoughts all this time.

She tilted her head to the side slightly and studied me clinically, her age suddenly very apparent. "Your advice to Sookie would have been different, had she been in my shoes? You plan to make public the fact that she now reads vampire's minds?"

I glared at her in response but Sookie squeezed my hand even tighter, "Please, Eric. Please…," she begged me. I clenched my jaw and nodded to Thalia. I felt Sookie's relief and pulled her closer to me in response, but still Thalia did not continue. This time Sookie led the way, "Thalia," she said quietly, "I know Eric told you earlier that I was alive…different, but alive and had returned to him, but how did you now that I am sera fae?" I too was curious about this so I sat up taller, giving Thalia my full attention.

Thalia shook her head a little in amazement at Sookie's question. "I can tell that you are sera fae the same way you can tell a chicken from a frog. Once you meet a living, full-blooded sera fae, you will understand what I mean."

"But I have, I've met Pele and Pele's son and although I knew they were different and powerful, I had no idea what they were or that we were of the same bloodline," Sookie said, sitting up and pulling her legs under her so she was almost kneeling on the loveseat.

Thalia's eyes widened and I saw a flash of pain and sorrow pass over her dark brown eyes, "You have met my…you have met Kane? How? You have only been sera fae for a few years. How is that possible?" she asked, her voice heavy with emotion. She pronounced the name Kane with two syllables, so it sounded more like 'Kah-ne' and the name was spoken with longing and love.

"If you mean Pele's son who is tall, dark and filled with hatred and anger, then yes, I've met him. You know him?" She asked incredulously, her dislike for him coming through loud and clear.

Thalia looked even more miserable as she nodded. "I know…knew him well. He was my makua, my ancestor."

Sookie's mouth fell open and I felt confusion, sadness and jealousy boil through her jointly. "You knew your makua?" Sookie asked. Thalia nodded but did not elaborate and I could almost see her painful memories flashing before her eyes.

The two women sat still, each locked in their own thoughts until Sookie finally said, "Thalia, I know it's hard for you to talk about or maybe even think about, but please, I've never met another sera fae who has been willing or able to tell me very much. Please help me. I need to know what I am, who my people are and why things are this way for us."

Thalia took a series of deep and unnecessary breaths as we sat waiting for her for a few minutes. Sookie sensed my frustration and impatience and soothed me with her own patience and hope. Finally Thalia began to speak, her voice was quiet and yet passionate like the wind on a crystal clear and blustery night.

"We…did not measure time in years the way you do now, when I was born. I have determined, however, that it must have been somewhere around 900 years before the current era. My extended family had lived, for as long as our stories went back, on the fertile lands of Sekht-am or 'palm land,' now known as the Siwa oasis in Egypt, very close to what is now the Libyan border. We were, however, so isolated from the rest of Egypt by the vast expanse of desert that we were left alone for the most part."

I looked at Sookie, imploring her to pass on Thalia's thoughts to me so I could see this place of which she spoke. I had traveled extensively throughout Egypt and had once been to the Siwa oasis and to the oracle temple there, but had seen no community such of which she spoke there. When I arrived, there were fewer than forty families living on the isolated oasis.

Sookie glanced up at Thalia and my sheriff held her hand up to Sookie, staying her actions and then looked at me intently. The images from her mind hit mine so forcefully that I gripped the arm of the love seat to retain my balance. This was nothing like when Sookie shared her memories, I was so completely overrun by the pictures, I couldn't discern one from the next. Sookie gave a gasp of alarm and Thalia swore in a language with which I was not and slowly decreased the intensity of her thoughts that were pummeling through my mind. Slowly, they reached a more tolerable level.

When I was able to see more than just her memories, I found Sookie almost in my lap, her hands on my face and her warm lips on my forehead. Her eyes were full of questions and her concern flowed smoothly through our blood tie. I gave her a small smile and she bit her lip slightly before lowering herself back to the seat.

"That was not my intent," Thalia said, frustration plain in her eyes if not in her voice, "I have not shared my thoughts with anyone for thousands of years." She did not apologize, nor would I expect for her to do so. I'd seen enough of Sookie's abilities to know that control took regular practice.

"Try again," I said in a gentle voice and was pleased that when she did so, I received her images comfortably.

There was no mistaking the unique and beautiful Siwa oasis even though I was seeing her memories of it in the daylight and two millennia before I had visited.

The oasis, a lush expanse of palm groves, grasses, date and olive orchards laced with lakes fed by hot and cool springs, was set in a depression almost three times larger than the city of Shreveport. It was without a doubt, the most beautiful oasis in Egypt and the most revered due to the presence of the oracle and the fact that the Egyptian government had basically left it alone to rule itself and so develop its own culture and traditions.

When I visited, the grand ancient oracle temple and the Mountain of the Dead that housed a multitude of rock cut tombs, some still with beautiful painted frescos covering the walls, had been but sad remains having been constructed mostly of salt and mud brick. In her memories, the temple was a simple structure and the small mountain was untarnished by human hands.

"Our temple fell into disrepair over two thousand years ago and was replaced with the one you saw when you visited. What is now called the 'Mountain of the Dead' was simply a hill made of sandstone rock. We did not feel the need to entomb our dead, those tombs were created when the Egyptian and the Roman influence permeated the oasis." She kept her voice neutral but we could both feel the bitterness that came from watching her beloved home be altered by time and changing cultures. I could relate. It was one of the many reasons I had never returned to my homeland when Appius had finally given me my freedom.

Thalia's influence faded from my mind, "Thank you, Thalia. I will now expect that you will keep out of my mind unless I request otherwise. You and Sookie can decide what you wish to share with one another." She nodded in agreement and Sookie rubbed my back to tell me that Thalia had followed my request.

Satisfied, I gestured slightly at Thalia, encouraging her to continue. She ran a finger along the arm of the chair, deep in thought and then began to speak again. "I think it was the geographic and cultural isolation that drew Kane to us, but of course I wasn't there in the beginning. He had created our family line many generations before I was born. You see, just across the Red Sea, south of the Plain of El-'Hisma, was a field of volcanoes known as Harrat ar Rahah. Kane had fled his home in Hawaii, seeking the pa, and only after hundreds of years did he leave the safety of the volcanoes and begin his only line of descendants…my line."

Frustration speared through Sookie, "How do you know this? I thought makuas weren't allowed to have actual contact with his or her 'family'," she said, her sarcasm clear in her voice when she used the word family. "That's what the Britlingens told me and no one has tried to contact me or…" Sookie's words came to a sudden halt as she appeared to bite her tongue to stop her words and she backtracked. "I've been floundering here for years. Vampires, Weres and fairies have attacked us and no one's come to help or even to explain a damn thing."

"She gave you your necklace did she not," Thalia said with a flash of anger in her eyes as she glanced at Sookie's pendant. "You are being childish and selfish. She gave you more than most get as they begin their journeys. That pendant is a sign of your makua's absolute love and devotion for her children. It warns others that you are being watched and that your murder would be avenged swiftly.

"She has not come to you yet because you need a chance to grow on your own, to develop your abilities and embrace your identity, it is right for her to be keeping her distance. It is our way. It has always been our way, from the moment of creation of our kind as Pele fled her family and developed her own individual powers unique to anything known to her kind. It will always be our…the sera fae way," Thalia said, closing her eyes and pressing the tip of her fingers to her forehead as though she had a headache. "You are not ready to join your makua. Most walk alone for hundreds of years before being embraced into the fold. That is the way to build strength." Thalia dropped her hand into her lap and looked back up at Sookie, "If your makua had tucked you under her wing, you would have deferred to her, become dependent upon her and limited yourself in deference to her."

"There were once so many more of us, but we became soft and complacent and we were almost wiped out by the fairies and the vampires. Our numbers are growing again, but slowly for now fewer of us are accepting the pa, choosing instead to live lives of comfort and ease." She shook her head in disgust and then glared at Sookie, "How do you know that the reason your makua has not shown herself to you is by her own choice? Perhaps she has joined the multitude of our kind who have been captured and killed by our enemies."

Sookie's mouth dropped open in shock as she contemplated this idea. She squeezed her eyes together and Thalia flinched at, I could only imagine, Sookie's memories of what happens when the fairies get their hands on an enemy.

"Thalia," I said sternly, brushing a curl of hair back from Sookie's distraught face, "start at the beginning and tell us what you know."

Thalia calmed herself down and looked like she might actually apologize when Sookie interrupted her with a shake of her head, "No. You're right. It's just been hard not having a clue what's been going on and hearing bits and pieces of information from different sources, so I just assumed she didn't care. Do you know who my makua is? Do you know if she's still alive?" Sookie asked, her voice trembling with the last question.

Thalia shook her head and said bitterly, "I know nothing. You are the first sera fae I have had contact with since I was turned. I only know what was…not what is."

"Continue Thalia. We will not interrupt you again," I said and Sookie agreed silently beside me. She pressed herself up against my side more tightly for support and we both waited patiently for Thalia to begin.

"I will tell you what I know. Some I saw with my own eyes and the rest comes from stories and shared memories from my people," she said, sitting back in her chair a little. "When I was born, there were about three hundred people living on the oasis, all of us members of what over time had become a large extended family as was common in those days. According to lore, some of the original settlers came from Libya and others from Egypt, most were simply happy to find a fertile and isolated place to live during a time of such horrible wars and famines. My ancestors built a simple civilization in the oasis, and were sustained by the olives and dates that grew there naturally along with other grains and vegetables brought from other lands. Water was plentiful due to the numerous fresh water springs that fed the lakes, it truly was a sanctuary in the middle of the unrelenting desert. Kane came to us not long after my people settled on the oasis and he changed our future forever."

Thalia stopped talking for a moment and in that brief break, Sookie stood up and retrieved two TrueBloods from the fridge, warmed them and handed one directly to Thalia and put the other on the small table within Thalia's reach. Thalia drank the first blood quickly and then took small sips of the next bottle, giving Sookie an unhappy and self-deprecating look of thanks. Sookie kept her face clear of emotion but I could feel her pity and concern flowing freely thorough our blood. Obviously Thalia was struggling and when Sookie sat down next to me I noticed that she had blocked her scent.

Thalia continued her story, "By the time I was born, our community consisted of seers, natural witches, telepaths, and shape-changers, skills inherent to the sera fae that were apparent in the stronger and more individualistic members of our community. It is similar to how your telepathy leaked through before you began your journey but I had always assumed that this happened to you because of your fairy blood.

"I was one of those individuals who was born with extra abilities, telepathy in my case. I don't remember when I was identified, but throughout my childhood, I received education on survival, self-defense and languages alongside a few of my peers. We were taught by the sera fae who had returned to us no less than two hundred years after setting out on their own.

"The sera fae taught us, but they also functioned to protect us when we were threatened by armies led by kings and pharaohs who had been upset by what our seers had told them or who simply wanted our land. They didn't stop everyone from coming, only those whose intent was to injure us in some way."

She paused for a moment and a wide, wicked grin crossed her lips, "Once I had accepted the pa and returned to my kin, I had the joy of joining my brothers and sisters in causing a sand storm so great that it completely buried King Cambyses' army of 50,000 men who were on their way to destroy one of our seers who had upset their king." Sookie shuddered at the images she received from Thalia. "He did not bother us again," Thalia said and she looked at me to share this particular piece of humor since Sookie was not able to share it with her. I returned her smile and gave her a nod of encouragement for a job well done.

Thalia returned to her story, "The sera fae also prepared us for the changes we would face if we survived leaving the oasis and did in fact accept the 'pa' as Kane called the journey toward power. They prepared us for evading and fighting our enemies, particularly the fairies."

Sookie shifted anxiously next to me and gestured to Thalia, "I know I said that I wouldn't interrupt you, but do you know why the fairies hate us so much?" she asked.

Thalia nodded, "Their hatred is built upon many perceived insults and injuries caused by Pele, Kane and their descendants. I don't know the exact events regarding Pele, but stories suggest that she angered her sister and another goddess, the original water and sky goddesses and progenitor of the water and sky fairies. Later Pele struck out in a moment of anger and destroyed a wooded refuge of the fairies, weakening them and further limiting their safe havens in this world.

The fairies couldn't do anything to her in revenge since she stayed near the volcanoes around the planet. They couldn't get her, but they tracked her son Kane until he found his safe haven and they have spent millennia hunting and killing any sera fae they can find."

Sookie shook her head in disgust. "All this for one moment of anger," she grumbled.

Thaila bit her lip, "More than one Sookie. Have you not had any accidents as you've developed your powers?" Sookie sighed and must have shared her memory of the events in Oakland because Thalia nodded, "It must be your fairy blood that evens out your emotions if that's all that has occurred." She ignored Sookie's glare, "Most sera fae have a much harder time controlling their emotions, it is the reason we stayed away from the oasis for at least two hundred years when we first made the change. It wasn't safe for us to return before then. So it was not one insult that so upset the fairies, Kane and many others of us also caused injury to the fairies and their lands."

Sookie nodded in understanding and gestured for Thalia to continue. Thalia sat back in the chair and took a sip of her TrueBlood and I cringed at the thought of how tepid it must be by now.

"When you need more blood, help yourself to some," I directed Thalia and she nodded her assent and stood up to do just that.

As she worked on her drink, she spoke again, "None of us had ever left the oasis, so the idea of traveling the world on our own was terrifying to most of us, especially for the girls in our group. I was different. I was eager to get out, to be on my own, I couldn't wait for the day that I would leave. Kane saw this in me when he visited the oasis and singled me out for extra tutelage because of it.

"Eventually I tired of the endless training, took my belongings, survival gear and the money I had been allotted and left the oasis. Little did I know that this was what they were waiting for and exactly what I had to do. They never would have told me I was ready, I had to make that leap on my own. The ones who never left were integrated back into our society. It was possible that they would one day leave and have the chance of starting their journey as an older adult, but this had only happened once. It was usually the younger ones like myself who wanted to prove themselves and see what life could hold for them who took that initial step.

"I journeyed for years, stopping for respite at different settlements and joining bands of travelers to better travel through certain areas as a lone woman. Within two years, I began to fully embrace my powers. I could control other's minds, terraport, create fire and shape shift. Unfortunately, I also struggled with controlling my emotions as I explained before. Since my powers were directly tied to my emotions, I had to frequently flee the fairies who were drawn to me by my larger explosions of power.

"Slowly, over about two hundred years, I gained enough control over myself that I felt that it would not be dangerous for me to go back to the oasis. I headed toward home, but was drawn instead to the Harrat ar Rahah volcanoes where I hoped to find Kane or other sera fae. I was not disappointed. For the next six hundred years I lived within the volcanoes with my brothers and sisters, Kane and occasionally Pele. It was my home and they were my family in every way possible and I was happier there than I had ever been or than I have been since."

Thalia paused, staring off as she relived her memories and I was horrified to see blood tears welling up in her eyes. This story did not have a happy ending for her and I couldn't imagine how awful it would be for her to be wrenched from everything she knew and loved after six hundred years. I knew how hard it had been for Sookie after less than thirty years.

I deftly pulled a handkerchief I always had on hand for Sookie from my pocket and handed it to her and then pulled Sookie up and over to the refrigerator under the guise of obtaining a small snack and drink for her. Thalia needed a moment of privacy and I needed to make sure Sookie didn't start crying along with her. I could hardly handle Sookie crying, much less a three thousand year old vampire sheriff.

I had been right, Sookie was on the verge of tears, so I silently kissed her cheeks and forehead and encouraged her to breathe and pull herself together. She nodded and did as I suggested, squaring her shoulders and tilting her head up, readying herself to hear the rest of this tale.

By the time we returned, Thalia had composed herself. She began right away, "At one point, Kane asked me to return to the oasis to teach the next generation of our people. The idea of passing down our knowledge to potential sera fae was intriguing to me and so I went willingly, eagerly even. When I arrived, the oasis was buzzing with anticipation of the arrival of an important visitor. Our most gifted seer of that generation, Nakhti, had apparently gained the attention of Alexander the Third of Macedon in Greece, now known as Alexander the Great," she said with a disgusted twist to her face. "Apparently he was journeying to our oasis to seek confirmation from Nakhti, or our 'oracle,' as the Greeks called her," she said sarcastically, "that he was indeed son of Zeus and the legitimate Pharaoh of Egypt.

"He was only on the oasis for a short time and I know for a fact that Nakhti did not tell him what he wanted to hear but that didn't stop him and his court 'historians' from spouting lies that would support his plans for domination and expansion of his empire. The truth did not matter; the damage was already done," she said through clenched teeth. "His notoriety assured that his claims were heard far and wide, causing many others to journey to the oasis seeking guidance from Alexander's the Great's oracle, and disrupting our unique way of life," she sneered. "The sera fae who were there at the time were able to turn many of the unwanted visitors away by controlling their minds, but one night a vampire came to the oasis, killed one of my sera fae brothers and then snuck into our ancient seer's temple and turned her."

Sookie gasped but I was not surprised. It was a very new concept to have the consent of the human before turning them and even I would have been tempted to turn such a valuable human as a famous oracle.

"Luckily, I sensed the murder of my kin and caught the vampire as he was leaving with Nakhti's body slung over his shoulder. I was able to stop him without killing him and I learned quickly that our jewelry, which was generally made of silver, was an excellent weapon against vampires. I was able to hold him prisoner until he told me everything I needed to know about what he had done to her and what she would become and then I killed him," she said with a vicious smile.

"Nakhti rose, as he said she would, and we did our best to care for her. Unfortunately, we had to confine her in her temple and feed her blood from a clay vessel after she killed three of our people trying to sate her unquenchable thirst. She calmed within a year, but that was not the end of the storm. Many vampires followed the first after hearing rumors about the vampire oracle and although we destroyed most of them, there were always fatalities in our sera fae and human populations when they came." She shook her head again and took an unnecessary breath, "The night my life ended, Nakhti, told me to expect a coming change. I accepted her words easily, having seen so much change in the world and in myself over the years, but I did not worry.

"I can only blame myself for what happened that night. I was momentarily weakened, as we all are when one of us dies, when a dear friend and fellow sera fae was bitten and drained before my eyes. I lost my focus in the face of my rage and ended up killing everyone in my line of sight with one massive explosion of energy. Just as I realized what I had done, I was bitten on the arm from behind. It shouldn't have felled me, but it did, I was completely unable to defend myself in any way. The last thing I remember is seeing a pair of deep green eyes and then the blinding pain that was quickly followed by peaceful nothingness."

She stopped talking for a moment and it was as though I was being sucked out of my own memories, I had been so caught up in her story. Sookie was frozen beside me with her hand clamped over her mouth in horror and her heart pounding much faster than usual.

"When I awoke, I knew immediately that I was dead. The tie I had to my kind, the connection that healed me, gave me strength and constant comfort was gone. It was as though someone had cut off a limb or deadened one of my senses, I was absolutely alone for the first time in hundreds of years and the absence of that connection terrified me like nothing else ever had. Instead of that tie, filled with life and gravity, I was shackled to Nakhti by a thin and hollow bond through which she was able to force me to drink the blood from the descendants of our people," she said, grasping her flowing hair in her fists.

"Apparently, I had been brought to her after the vampires had been vanquished or run off. I was nearly drained and Nakhti had decided to turn me, thinking that she was saving me," she said, clenching her eyes tightly closed for a moment. "Nakhti had not saved me. I was disgusted with myself and by my new desires, appalled by the damage the battle had caused that night and I hated her for what she and her kind had done to me.

"When she finally allowed me to leave the temple, I found that I could not be around my own people…their blood called to me too strongly. Kane and my brothers and sisters refused to acknowledge my existence after our hundreds of years together and so I begged my maker to let me go out into the world and away from the reminders of my losses and the constant pain their proximity caused me.

"She denied me and so I stayed with her while her temple decayed and was rebuilt and then as the Romans came and over ran our home with their sheer numbers. Eventually, Nakhti became obsolete in the Roman's eyes and she was moved by the Greek vampires to a sanctuary in Delphi." I froze as I gaped at her, asking silent questions. Thalia nodded at me, confirming my suspicions. "Before Nakhti there had been a long line of sibyl or oracles who were older women from the area, brought to the sanctuary in Delphi. They were seated above a crack in the ground and sent into crazed trances from exposure to natural ethylene gas rising from deep in the earth. Their ravings were 'translated' by the priests and priestesses of the temple and were presented as messages from Apollo." Thalia paused for a moment, shaking her head in disgust.

"Once Nakhti had been secured in the sanctuary, she accepted the name Pythia and later became known as the Ancient Pythoness, first by the Greeks and then by all who came to see her. Part of her reasoning of accepting this name and persona was to secure her own importance in the modern culture and the other motivation was to obscure her history and the history of our people from those who would wish to destroy us.

"The few sera fae and our descendants who had survived the coming of the vampires, Romans, Greeks and other visitors had been driven from the oasis and spread far and wide across the world. I never spoke to a sera fae again, although I would see them at a distance once in a while before they fled from me. The last I heard about the sera fae was from Nakhti, somehow, although she was vampire, she was kept in the loop of information. I never learned how though. Apparently Pele and Kane had told all remaining sera fae that they were never to build a society like ours again and they were never to stay with or interfere with their descendants. They were to procreate if they wanted to but then leave so as not to draw attention to our future kin. The offspring would accept the change to be sera fae or they wouldn't. They would survive or they wouldn't. The makua was not to interfere so as to avoid such devastating losses as we suffered after Alexander's visit.

"It wasn't until the current era that I left Nakhti. She held me close at first because she knew I would end my pathetically limited existence at my first opportunity, but she quickly became dependent on me to protect her from the increasing number of visitors who journeyed to see her. Slowly, I began to accept my new nature and she finally sent me out on my own. Despite our many disagreements, I had grown close to her. She was the only one who knew the truth of our beginnings so I made sure she was well protected and had enough handmaidens to keep her well fed and cared for. As I traveled, I spread the word of her age and her history as the oracle at Delphi to add to her mystique and influence in the vampire population. Only four individuals know the whole truth now, so guard it well," she said and I saw the threat of retribution from a much older vampire flash in her eyes.

Sookie and I both quickly agreed to keep this knowledge to ourselves.

"Before I left her," Thalia continued, "Nakhti told me that I would find what I was looking for with the Viking. I fled the whole region, always searching for a Viking who had what I wanted, and although I found many Vikings, both vampire and human, I did not find anything to satisfy my unrelenting craving for my previous life.

"Finally, when I was visiting America about a century ago, I heard about the Viking sheriff in Louisiana. After I met you, I thought that maybe the peace you offered me was what my maker had been talking about. I settled down here under your charge but it wasn't until two decades ago that I realized what her words really meant."

Sookie gasped, "Me? You were looking for me?" she asked.

"Though I too thought it was ridiculous at the time, it was the only thing that seems to make sense of her words. Even though you were tainted by fairy blood," she said with a snarl that had my fangs running out, "the telepathy and your courage and hard-headedness were indicators that you could one day be sera fae."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sookie and I both asked at the same time, she with a hurt and frustration in her voice and mine filled with anger.

"When I first saw you at Fangtasia," she said to Sookie, "I was so shocked to find you there. A telepath who smelled of fairy...here where Nakhti told me I would find what I was looking for. Why would I look for you? What in the hell am I supposed to be looking for anyway when all I want is my sera fae life back?" she asked, seeming to be speaking more to the walls or her absent maker than to Sookie.

"And there you were, so strong already, but so wrapped up in your small life and in your vampires that I was sure you would never start your journey toward accepting the power that was yours for the taking. I hated you. I hated you for your possibilities, for the future that waited for you that you were throwing away because of your false bravado that hid a scared little girl." Sookie opened her mouth to disagree, but Thalia cut her off, "I could read your mind then without you feeling it, so I know all your excuses and what was at the root of your fears and self-defeating actions. Don't try to deny it. So I didn't tell you what you could be because you would have pushed it away just like you did everything else except for the few comfortable things you held onto with both hands."

Thalia turned to me and her voice softened, "I didn't tell you because I'd never seen anything good come from the mix of vampires and sera fae and I was afraid of what you would do if I told you. I thought you might push or scare her away to force the change and then follow her. You were blood bound and you loved her. You would find her and then she would end up like me and it would destroy you both. Even though I hated her with a jealous rage, I would not wish my losses on anyone."

"If you hate me, why are you here now?" Sookie asked, her voice was subdued with the sadness I felt coming from her.

"Clearly I was wrong. Clearly vampires and sera fae can live side by side if it's done in the right way. When I arrived today and heard about you and how we would be preparing to see you, I knew you two had figured out how to be together without him killing you," she said with a wry smile, leaving her deep sorrow and anger behind. "I'd gained a lot of respect for you when you feigned your murder, broke the bond and disappeared. That was so much more than I thought you would ever be able to do. You made me proud."

I felt guilt pouring from Sookie and Thalia shook her head, "It had to be done little sister." The two women looked at each other for a few moments and then Sookie gave Thalia a small smile.

Thalia returned the smile "It was such a relief to learn that you were alive, I'd been so worried when he disappeared to Hawaii last year, sure that he had finally followed your pathway there."

Sookie looked at her with questions in her eyes, "How...?"

All joy faded from Thalia's expression, "It's…where I would have gone. One of the places I most want to be…but…I am not welcome within the fold of my people anymore and I couldn't stand living so close. It's better for me to be away," she told herself, but none of us were convinced by her hollow words. Thalia's pain was so intense that Sookie was barely holding herself together and even I could feel it in her gestures and expressions.

"You know that I'm not welcome on Oahu either, right?" Sookie said, offering Thalia a shared pain. Thalia's eyes snapped up and bored into Sookie's. "I went to the lava flow once as part of a vacation and Kane, I guess that's who he must have been, would have killed me right then and there because of my fairy blood if Pele hadn't intervened. As it was, she told me not to come back, so clearly I don't belong there either."

The two women looked at one another and I was sure for a second that Sookie was going to hug Thalia. Thankfully, Thalia sat back in her seat and gave Sookie a little smile instead, "So what you're saying is that we're both outcasts."

"Yup. That's us, outcasts, pariahs, the scourge of the sera fae. I guess we're lucky they didn't send us to some small island in the middle of nowhere to live out our long lives…or eternity," Sookie said sarcastically, trying to lighten the tension. I frowned at her but Thalia actually laughed.

"Let's see them try. The three of us together would make a pretty impressive showing," Thalia said with uncharacteristic levity to her words.

"Is it so bad being a vampire?" Sookie asked and I was glad she did, that was something I couldn't ask comfortably. I enjoyed it and couldn't imagine spending more than two millennia hating what I was.

"No," she answered with a grimace. "If I had been human when I was turned, I would have embraced being vampire. It is only because I was sera fae that being vampire does not hold the allure that it should. I was so much more for hundreds of years and now I am…"

She didn't have to say any more, Sookie and I both nodded our understanding. We had come to the same conclusions regarding Sookie and she was only two decades old in her sera fae years.

"You retained your telepathy through the change. What other powers made the transition with you?" I asked cautiously.

Her dark eyes bored into mine, testing my trustworthiness and my intent in learning this information before she spoke. Apparently something she saw appeased her because she answered me, "I am resistant to silver and the sun does not burn me."

I nodded and itched to run my fingers over Sookie's silver jewelry as I was hit by an excited tension that threatened to overwhelm me…the sun doesn't burn her. The sun…silver…the sun. The sun! I hadn't tested it. Why would I? It couldn't be possible…how could it? I was still pulled to my rest each morning and woke right at sunset, Sookie's blood couldn't have made me...

"And the sun…how did you learn of that?" I asked, ignoring Sookie's hand that was tightly clasped on my arm.

"I was forced to flee into the sun when the tomb I sought refuge in was raided. I expected to be meet my end, but all I received was a slight sunburn comparable to what humans receive when they spend too much time in the sun," Thalia answered.

"How long were you exposed?" I demanded.

"At first, only a few seconds, but once I found a secure place, I explored for longer, maybe an hour or two before I could no longer stay awake," she answered with narrowed eyes, studying me carefully.

"How did you wake when the raiders disturbed your lair?"

She shrugged slightly, "I have always been a light sleeper and wake easily to any disturbance during the day," her eyes widened and her fangs ran out slightly. "You have had Sookie's blood," she brushed me off when I growled lightly at her. "I can smell it in you. Is it altering you?" she asked, sounding intrigued and unhappy about the possibility at the same time.

Thalia started to turn in Sookie's direction but I didn't give her the chance to even look at my lover. I launched myself at her and had her pressed against the ceiling with her arms behind her back in less than half a second. It was the only position I could think of that might give me the upper hand against her significantly greater strength. If she fought me, I would let her fall and again have her at my mercy, if only for a moment. A series of calculated moments were all I needed to keep ahead of a stronger enemy, but I could not make any mistakes.

She chose not to fight me. "Sookie's blood will not give you your life back," I growled into her ear. "You will never be what you were. You are dead and no blood can change that." I pressed her harder into the ceiling and bits of drywall began to crack and tumble down around us like snow.

"I know," she said, her words muffled since her face was pressed into the ceiling. "I know," she whispered again and I heard the defeat in her voice.

"Eric," Sookie said frantically from below us, "Eric, she knows it won't make her sera fae again, she found the vampire who had drained her and it hadn't altered him in any way. She knows; she just wishes it could help her."

I released my pressure slightly, knowing that if I relaxed too much, or if she really wanted to, she could have my head before I could blink. "Is this true?" I demanded.

"Yes. I never forgot his eyes and I searched for him for three centuries before I found him in Prague. He was a typical ungifted vampire, my blood had had no affect on him."

"Then why would you think it might be affecting me differently?"

"You are older, stronger…I thought that you might be benefitting from the magic of her blood," she answered and I felt confirmation from Sookie.

"It has not," I lied and kept a tight hold on my thoughts and willed Sookie to do the same.

"I apologize for my actions. I promise I pose no harm to Sookie. She is my family, the only family I can have contact with, and I would never harm her," Thalia swore, emotion thick in her voice.

"If you do," I threatened, "if I even suspect you are thinking about it, you will pay dearly Thalia."

She nodded and I angled us so that when I dropped her and flew to stand in front of Sookie, she landed on her feet on the other side of the room.

I watched her carefully as she blinked the dust from her eyes and then bowed to me. When she stood erect, she looked me straight in the eyes and I knew that she had allowed me to restrain her only because I had been protecting Sookie. I knew as clearly as I knew my own name that she would not tolerate my hands on her a second time.

I gave her a miniscule nod to inform her that I had received her nonverbal warning. We were in a delicate dance here…she was dominant by age and I was dominant by position. Our steps would have to be taken carefully, but I would not tolerate any threat to Sookie's safety and it appeared that Thalia agreed with me about that fact.

"You are dismissed," I said to her in a cold, hard voice just wanting her out of the room before she changed her mind and decided to teach me why I should respect my elders.

"Wait," Sookie begged. "Please, wait. I need to ask her a few more questions, Eric. Please?" I nodded, but kept my guard up. "Please Thalia, I need to know, why were you unable to defend yourself when the vampire bit you?" she asked breathlessly.

Thalia's downcast eyes wandered a moment and then landed on Sookie, "I have wondered about that over the ages and still don't have a good answer. All I know is that nothing worked in that moment. I was in too much pain. It felt as though I had been hit by a weapon at the same time as I was bitten…I must have been because it hurt all over. I've wondered if perhaps I burned myself when I lost control so grievously or maybe it was the pain I felt when my fellow sera fae died at my side. I had felt that loss before and it brought me to my knees that time too. I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "Perhaps it was the combination of occurrences."

She didn't mention that Sookie had survived me biting her, but I was sure that we were all thinking about it.

Sookie grasped the back of my shirt tightly and then asked, "Have you had contact with your maker since you left her?" I knew where she was going with this, but we could not release the information the Ancient Pythoness had given us…not to Thalia when I didn't fully trust her. I used the pressure of my hand on her lower back to communicate my unease, she returned it to assure me that she understood and would act with caution.

"She has called me back to her three times over the millennia, but I have not seen or heard from her in six hundred years," she answered.

Sookie nodded and then her eyes widened, "There is one thing you need to know Thalia, if you don't already know that is. Fairies have followed me here, so if they somehow recognize you, please be careful. They've already attacked us once."

"I am aware of the situation with the fairies. Does the prince know that you are his kin?" Sookie nodded and then closed her eyes and replayed the battle for Thalia. A frown formed on Thalia's face as she watched the battle but when it was over, she said, "You did very well for one so young though I am not sure how you controlled yourself when you were attacked, most young sera fae could not do that." She paused in thought for a moment, "You can teleport like a fairy. Can you terraport as well?"

Sookie shook her head, "No, I tried to terraport for months, but I just couldn't do it." I put my hand on her arm, silently questioning her. I wasn't familiar with 'terraporting.' Sookie looked at me and then to Thalia.

It was Thalia who answered me, "Terraporting is the sera fae's way of traveling. In essence, it is similar to teleporting, but whereas the fairies travel through air, the sera fae travel through the ground."

"Do they have to be touching the ground to travel?" I asked, eager to learn as much as I could about potential weaknesses they might have.

Thalia frowned at me, knowing my motivation for the question, "Yes. Just like when fairies are around too much iron, they lose their powers, sera fae are weakened when they are away from the iron."

"What if they were in a building with iron within the walls?" I questioned.

Thalia shrugged, "I don't know, we did not have buildings like this when I was sera fae, but I would imagine that they would have to be directly on some form of ground to be able to terraport. We…they essentially become one with the ground as they travel, it is how they live in the volcanoes."

I nodded and Thalia turned back to Sookie, "I will think about the mixed messages the fairies gave you. They have captured us before, rather than killing us outright. I'd always assumed that their objective was to learn more about our strength and weaknesses or to gather valuable information for there was never a request for ransom and none were ever returned to us. This situation seems different however. I will let Eric know if I come to any conclusions."

"Thank you Thalia, for everything," and then she looked up at me beseechingly.

I knew that look, and we would have this conversation at another time, so I answered her question as smoothly as I could. "Sookie and I will see you next at the party on the 27th of this month," I stated.

"As always, my King," she answered with a bow and started toward the door.

"Perhaps you and Sookie can have some more time to catch up then," I added for Sookie and honestly for my benefit as well. I knew Sookie was desperate to spend more time with Thalia and I could think of few better places than an intensely guarded party.

"I…would like that," Thalia said with slight confusion in her eyes and a growing smile on her lips and with that, I alerted James of her impending departure and in seconds, the door slid open, allowing Thalia to leave us.

Sookie and I were silent for a long time in the empty room, but I knew what was coming.

"Promise me Eric."

"No."

"Eric, you saw her, heard her…promise me."

"No.

Sookie let out a strangled roar of frustration, but then she launched herself at me, wrapped her arms around me as though I were her life raft and sobbed for Thalia's losses. She had seen too much loss and grief and felt too much pain to hold it in any longer.

I held her to my chest and rocked her gently, "Your current fears are built on Thalia's experiences, not your own. You would not miss the sera fae life and community the way she does because you are not part of that anyway."

"Way to rub salt in the wounds, Eric," she sniffed and I chuckled quietly. "I'm just so sad for her, she's so very sad and alone. There must be something I can do to help her."

I pulled her away from my chest and glared down at her, "There is nothing you can do to help her. She is what she is, nothing will change that. Even if she had your blood, she would never be sera fae again and that is what she wants." I'd spoken more forcefully than I wanted so I softened my voice and tried again, "You can be her friend and her family, that is what she really needs from you."

Sookie nodded, "And what of us?"

I knew what she was referring to, without her saying it. Thalia's words resounded in my ears as clearly as her story tore at Sookie's heart. _'Nothing good ever came from the mix of vampires and sera fae.'_ Would we be able to break the pattern Thalia had experienced? Would we be able to live our long lives side by side without destroying one another?

"It matters not what Thalia has seen in her long life. You are my wife, my love and my future," I said as I gathered her close to me, holding her as tightly as I dared. "We will simply have to demand that the fates understand that our love for one another will have to be enough to help us beat the odds."


	44. Chapter 44

_A/N:_

_Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you really keep me going. A big thanks to the hilarious EricsGaGirl who had me laughing for multiple days straight but who doesn't have her PMs enabled. Ahem. I love responding to reviewers so if you welcome that, you need your PMs enabled. If not, Thanks so very much!_

_My wonderful beta, charhamblin has agreed that it is time for me to try to fly on my own with proofreading this and my future chapters. Thank you Char for helping me out and giving me confidence! _

_So what this means is that I'm on my own now. Hopefully you won't see too much difference, but if you do, it's all on me._

_Sending a huge hug and lots of support to all of you out there on the East coast (of America) dealing with the aftermath of Sandy. As CH said regarding Sandy: 'She's not a bit funny.' Hang in there!_

_CH owns SVM._

0000000

Chapter 44 'That's a Take Two'

E~

Sookie kissed my chest and then slung her arms around my neck and hoisted her body up so her legs were wrapped tightly around my waist. I helped her and growled when her mouth crashed down on mine and I tasted her desperate need. This kiss was Sookie's way of confirming that no matter how much we might feel for Thalia, what she'd told us had been her story, not necessarily ours. We were both still here, Sookie was alive and our love for one another was intact.

I held her tightly to me as I walked us over to the love seat and placed her bottom on the back edge. It was the perfect height so that Sookie could keep her legs wrapped around my hips but our hands were free to tear at one another's clothing in a frantic need to touch, see and taste.

Sookie's dress was pooled around her waist and my shirt was on the floor when the door slid open without warning. Before I turned around, I heard a violent warning growl rip through the room and without even knowing that I had moved, I had my hand around Pam's neck and her back was pressed firmly against the wall near the door. Pam made a very smart choice and didn't struggle or even blink, she simply stood passively with her eyes lowered in a non-threatening posture.

I stood up from my crouched position that had me at her eye level, released her and she immediately relaxed. "Holy shit Eric. What the fuck happened to you two," she demanded, rubbing her neck and taking in Sookie's red-rimmed eyes and the dried tear tracks on her cheeks. She still avoided making eye contact with me…another smart move and one I had taught her early on to diffuse tensions with a stronger vampire. Too bad she couldn't get her mouth to follow my rules as well.

Sookie sighed and pulled her dress back over her shoulders. The buttons in the back were missing, but it stayed up well enough without them. "We're fine. I'm just being emotional, you know me," she answered as she hopped down off the back of the love seat and came to stand by my side. We would not be sharing Thalia's story with anyone, not even Pam.

"Nice try, but bullshit. I saw Thalia leaving and she looked like crap too. What the hell happened?" Her eyes widened, "Did she attack you?" she asked clearly disappointed to have missed the action.

"No." I answered. "What can I do for you Pam," I asked and she knew from the tone of my voice that she was to stop that line of questioning immediately.

"We've been waiting for you to finish up. Are you ready?" she asked, excitement shining in her eyes.

I'd been so wrapped up with Thalia's story that I'd completely forgotten my plans for the rest of the night. Perfect. There couldn't be a more perfect moment for this. This was exactly what we needed right now. "Give us twenty minutes to get changed," I responded, returning her smile.

"It'll be my pleasure. You know I how much I've enjoyed playing with Jason in the past," she said with a wicked smile. Sookie gasped but Pam was quicker, "He's not as much fun as he used to be though. He hasn't hit on me once," she said with a faux pout as she walked toward the door, "but, mmmm, he still smells delicious."

"Wait! Jason? Pam, what are you talking about? My Jason? Pam!" she yelled the last word, but Pam was already out the door. Sookie rounded on me and took in my sly grin. "What's going on?" she said, looking absolutely baffled.

"Jason is here at my request," I said as I raised her left hand to my lips and kissed first her fingers and then the ring that was a physical sign of our union and love. "I've told you that I want to tie myself to you in every way possible," Sookie nodded but still looked confused. "Sookie, I brought Jason here with the hope that you would be willing to join me in a human ceremony of marriage tonight." I would have preferred to have Hunter with us instead of Jason, but he was still with the Britlingens and wouldn't be returning for another year.

Sookie gasped, "But…but…Eric?" she stuttered. I smiled and raised an eyebrow at her, amused that she was speechless. "Tonight?" she questioned. I nodded, watching as her eyes narrowed and disbelief set in. "You planned a human wedding ceremony all by yourself?"

I nodded my head seriously just to watch the dumbstruck expression on her face and then shook my head and laughed, "No, but I told Pam what I wanted to do for you and she's been working on the details for me."

"You really want to have a human wedding?" she asked and despite the skepticism in her voice, I could feel the warm glow of happiness and hope in her emotions. It was a very welcome change after all the sadness and worry she'd been feeling.

"Yes," I said, smiling more broadly than before, sure that she would agree to go along with my plans.

"To make our marriage legitimate in the human's eyes too?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

Warning lights flashed in my mind, cautioning me that I could be entering dangerous territory similar to answering Pam's question of 'does this make me look fat?' I studied her for a moment before I braced myself and answered, "Primarily, yes, but also to give you the experience I didn't the first time around."

She studied me for a long moment and then returned my smile hesitantly, allowing me to relax fractionally. "You know I don't need it," she said and I nodded. "Well…okay…alright…yes, let's do this," she answered; sounding finally convinced on her last few words and stepped into my embrace again.

I picked her up and kissed her soundly on the lips, oddly excited about the prospect of doing something I had never thought I would care about.

"Where do we go? When? Who else will be there?" she asked, her words running together in her excitement.

I released her from my grasp and took her hand as I led her quickly back to our room and closed the door behind us. "Pam and Jason are expecting to meet us in," I glanced down at my watch, "eighteen minutes." We were running about an hour behind my original plans, but this would have to do.

I turned Sookie so that her back was facing me and slowly unfastened the remaining buttons on her dress, letting my hands slide down contours of her sides as I worked the dress over her curvy hips. I kissed her shoulder and then spoke with my lips brushing against her skin, "Would it tire you out too much to teleport Pam, Jason and I to and from Hawaii in one night?"

Sookie had begun to respond to my touch, but she stilled before turning around. "You planned our wedding in Hawaii?" she asked, gaping at me.

"Our very simple wedding, on your property, with a Justice of the Peace and Jason and Pam as our witnesses," I clarified.

Her eyes glistened with happy tears this time but she blinked them back, smiling up at me. "Thank you, Eric."

I kissed her slowly and softly, trying to convey how much I had to thank her for. When our lips parted, I mentioned the one thing I had been concerned about, "I was tempted to inform your friends there, but decided to leave that up to you to do if you wanted."

Her eyes widened slightly and then wandered unseeingly around the room as she contemplated my words. Finally she looked back at me, "Did you have to tell anyone that you were going to be in Hawaii?"

I nodded, pleased that she was beginning to understand my world a little bit more. "Pam had to ask the Queen for permission for us to be married in Hawaii. We could teleport there without her knowing of course, but she would learn of the wedding sooner or later since she is notified of all human/vampire marriages."

"Is there any chance she'll come or send someone to check in on us?" Sookie asked, looking worried. Good. She needed to be aware of these potential dangers.

"Yes, especially since this is a royal wedding," I said and I wasn't surprised when Sookie's eyes widened momentarily. My status as king was still hard for her to integrate into her reality. "However, we told her it was a private event, so I don't anticipate any interference from her. If this was a vampire wedding, she would expect to have a representative in attendance."

"Okay…no, I don't want them there. Please don't be offended, but I just can't risk exposing them to our world while things are still so dangerous. I don't have any qualms about them meeting you, Pam or Jason, but if anyone else showed up…no, I won't let that happen."

I ran a hand down her arm, calming her, letting her know I understood and despite her worry, I was secretly pleased by the way she referred to the supernatural world as 'our' world.

"Maybe…" she was contemplative and clenching her hands together, "maybe one night, you and I could go. Just the two of us, without letting anyone else know we're there and spend some time with them. I'd love for my friends to meet you…and with Pua getting older…" she said and I felt intense concern flood through her at the thought of her dear friend aging.

I understood her reservations, she had tried her hardest to keep the supernatural world from crashing down on her friends and now she was bringing four and potentially more supernatural beings straight to their hometown.

"I think that would be for the best," I said, referring to keeping them away from us tonight, "and I would very much enjoy meeting your family," I said as I brushed a piece of hair back from her brow. "However," I said with a leer meant to get her mind on other, more pleasurable things, "I want as much time with you in Hawaii as I can get tonight, so we should be moving along. Pam put a new dress and shoes for you in my closet."

We released one another and Sookie tossed a frozen meal in the microwave and then grinned at me as she almost skipped to the closet, scooping up some dirty clothes from the floor by the bed and throwing them into the hamper. I smiled to myself when I heard her hum in appreciation of the new garment. I didn't know what it looked like, but I'd requested a specific color and it sounded as though Pam had found a dress that Sookie and I would both enjoy.

"I'm going to wear something more casual and bring the dress to change into later," she called as I sensed her movement and then heard her in the closet in her room. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a light grey button down shirt. Pam had my clothes for the wedding with her, but for all human intents and purposes, this was our wedding night, so even though we were going casual, a t-shirt was out of the question for me.

Sookie popped back to the bathroom and was feverishly repairing her tear streaked face and tousled hair. She could simply have used her fairy magic to 'glamour' them away, but I knew she wanted to forget all traces of the sadness this night had brought and not just cover them with magic.

Within two minutes she hurried through the room and retrieved the food from the microwave. I helped myself to a TrueBlood and we both fortified ourselves, sitting side by side in comfortable silence.

Sookie finished her meal and then played with her napkin, a sure sign that she had something she was thinking about intently. I sat back and waited patiently for her to 'spit it out,' as Pam always says. Suddenly, her emotions changed from contemplative to focused and excited. I was caught off guard when she tossed her napkin onto her food dish and took it and my empty bottle over to the sink where she rinsed and disposed of the items.

"Ready?" she asked me, a wide smile brightening her face.

"Is everything alright Sookie?" I asked.

She nodded enthusiastically and then laughed out loud when we heard a sharp kick on the other side of the door. "Yes, but it looks like the children are getting restless, let's get going," she said, gathering up her garment bag and backpack that I knew contained weapons and her other emergency supplies.

I was reassured by her continued good mood as I picked out my favorite weapons and sent a last minute text to James explaining my absence. James, Will and Shelia would be irritated with us for leaving without them, but I'd determined that Pam, Sookie and I could handle just about anything that came our way tonight.

The only individuals who knew we would be there tonight were the queen and anyone else she told, and all they knew was that I was marrying my human on Maui, not where exactly. The queen was adept at maintaining Hawaii's isolationist standing in the vampire world so she'd be a fool to even contemplate causing trouble with a fellow monarch.

0-0-0-0

I took her hand in mine and in so doing, reconnected a missing piece of my being by that simple action. She was a vision, glowing steadily from within and wearing her love for me on every inch of her body. The breeze picked up the lightest layer of her knee-length dress and blew it around her hips just as her long curls whipped around her face and shoulders. The dress was a glistening light green that was an exact match to the color of her pendant and our rings. It was perfect for this night and she looked every bit the ethereal creature she truly was to me.

I was wearing a pair of light gray dress pants that were more casually cut than I usually wore but well suited for the atmosphere. My shirt was an equally relaxed white button down made of a soft and thin cotton material and Pam had insisted that I roll the sleeves up to my mid forearm. I didn't complain; the clothing felt right here and went well with Sookie's dress. I'd pulled my hair back at the nape of my neck but skipped the shoes Pam had picked for me since Sookie had wanted to be barefoot so she could be closer to the land.

With her hand in mine, I could feel the steady thrum of energy entering her from the ground. Sookie looked up at me in surprise as she felt me responding to her energy and I felt her lust spike as she winked and grinned at me wickedly. I ran my thumb along the inside of her wrist, wondering what she had in mind for later on tonight that would have her feeling so feisty.

My erotic thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone quietly clearing his throat. I turned away from my bride to see the wide shouldered Hawaiian man watching us with a knowing smile on his weathered face and the vast dark ocean rising and falling steadily at his back. Jeff Mahelona, Justice of the Peace, looked to be in his mid forties and according to Sookie, was honestly eager to officiate his first vampire/human wedding.

"E komo mai na holaloha," he said in a deep voice, as he spread his arms wide to encompass Sookie and I, as well as Jason and Pam who stood behind us and slightly to our sides. "Welcome friends," he repeated in English. "the night of your union has been blessed by the light of the moon, and the cooling breeze brings with it the love and blessings of your Ohana…your family."

Sookie squeezed my hand, I'm sure thinking of the greater implications of having the blessings of her family who were affiliated with the sky. I respected the Hawaiian traditions, especially now that I'd seen that many of them were based in fact, but I was confident that we wouldn't be receiving blessings from Niall, windy night or not. He might be happy to give us a blade through our necks perhaps, but definitely not a blessing on our wedding night. I reached over and caressed her arm with my free hand, knowing how hard her split from the idea of a loving great-grandfather had been for her.

"Sookie and Eric, you have asked me to officiate your union here in this beautiful place. Are you both here of your own free will?"

We both responded with a simple, "Yes," to this standard question.

He smiled and picked up a wood bowl and a long green leaf from a small table Sookie had asked me to bring over from the deck. Earlier, I'd watched as he dipped the bowl into the water of the ocean. He held the bowl up towards us and encouraged Sookie and I to hold out our left hands, with hers on top of mine so both our rings were visible.

Jeff dipped the leaf into the bowl and sprinkled water over the rings while chanting, "Ei-Ah Eha-No. Ka Malohia Oh-Na-Lani. Mea A-Ku A-Pau," He completed this three times and then translated his words, "May peace from above rest upon you and remain with you now and forever."

He stepped back, but continued speaking. "This is a tradition of the Hawaiian People. The Ti leaf represents blessings to your mind, body and spirit, bestowing good health and prosperity. This bowl is made from Koa wood. Koa is a valuable hardwood representing strength and integrity, things you must always have in your marriage. The water cleanses you of the past, allowing you to start your lives anew as a married couple."

Sookie's fingers brushed against mine and I turned my hand up to wind my fingers through hers as we waited for Jeff to continue.

Jeff put the bowl and leaf down and spoke again with a twinkle in his brown eyes. "From the brief time that I've spent with you both, it has been absolutely clear to me that your love is strong for one another. I also know that you've been married in the traditions of Eric's people for a few years now. Usually I say something here about love and commitment, but I think in this situation that it would be best for me to leave it up to you to say or pledge whatever you wish." He turned to Sookie, "Sookie, do you have anything you'd like to say to Eric?"

Sookie nodded and her beautiful blue eyes met mine, "Eric…" she began but her voice gave out. She smiled, cleared her throat quietly, swallowed and tried again. "I…" but this time her face flushed a little and her eyes began to tear and she shook her head, trying to get out what she wanted to say without crying or revealing too much in front of Jeff. She gave up and I felt her mind open to mine and I was engulfed in bliss as I was pulled into her memories.

I saw flashes of the pinnacle moments in our life together…comfort in my arms as she sobbed in the elevator after escaping the Fellowship of the Sun, security as I kissed her at the orgy, my long body encased in that ridiculous pink lycra, trust as I held her hand and she allowed me to glamour her for the first and only time, camaraderie and growing affection in that same bed while she took my blood and we almost made love.

The images continued, each providing an emotional snapshot of what was to be the foundation of our love for one another. I cupped her face in my hands, lowered my head to hers and we stood with our foreheads touching, sharing our memories until we reached this day.

Slowly her shields separated us again, we moved apart a few inches and she whispered so quietly I wasn't sure if Jeff could hear her, "Have faith in me as I am now and tell me the whole truth…even when it's hard for you."

I nodded, giving her my silent promise, but I needed one from her too. "Don't run away anymore. Don't lock me out. Trust me," I demanded of her just as quietly.

She gave me a sad smile and nodded, adding her promise to mine. Satisfied, I touched my forehead to hers one more time and then stood back up to my full height.

Jeff, who had been quietly standing by took a deep breath and I found myself almost startled to see that the others were still with us. "Sookie, do you take Eric Northman to be your husband?"

"I do," she answered and then it was my turn. I answered with the same response and received the most beautiful smile from my bride. Jeff hummed his approval and then his eyebrows rose when Sookie discretely reached under the hem of her skirt and pulled a dagger from a sheath on her left thigh.

I tensed the moment I saw the blade glint in the moonlight, searching for the source of the danger, but relaxed when I heard Pam laughing quietly. My eyes fell back on the dagger and I realized that this wasn't just any dagger. Sookie was holding the ceremonial knife in her hands…the very knife I'd used to marry her the first time and to draw my blood in Rhodes when we bonded.

Sookie stared at me intently as she brought the knife to her lips and kissed the flat of the blade as I had done when she'd given it to me seventeen years ago. I was so touched by her actions that I had to take a deep breath to steady myself.

The look in her eyes told me that she thoroughly understood the significance of what she was doing. This was unnecessary, we were already married through the presentation of the knife, but she wanted to take the steps knowingly, the way it should have been done the first time, had our lives allowed it. After a moment's pause, she reverently held the knife out to me with steady hands.

Tonight we would re-write our history.

I accepted the symbol of marriage and commitment from her, raised it to my lips and kissed the blade as she had just done. The perfume of her lips was still on the metal and my fangs ran out at the combination of the scents.

Sookie looked beyond me and smiled, reaching out her hands. I glanced back to see Pam handing her the ceremonial chalice used during vampire weddings. I'd been thinking that I was surprising Sookie with a human wedding, only to find that my women had conspired behind my back to make this more than I had envisioned.

Both the knife and chalice had been carefully stored away in my room. The knife, I had never relinquished to our depository, finding myself unable to part with it. Last month I'd taken the kingdom's ceremonial chalice from the depository too, just in case we decided a formal marriage ceremony was needed to shore up my claims to Sookie since she had been gone for so long. It was possible that some vampires who would like to try and take her from me would say that our marriage was no longer valid since she had been declared legally dead. The video camera that was capturing this ceremony would now serve to prove that our marriage was valid in both human and vampire eyes.

I closed my eyes briefly, smiling to myself at Sookie's thoughtfulness and ability to keep one step ahead of this potential problem. She might only have been thinking of doing this as a gift for me, for us, but it was a smart move that, had I been thinking of the bigger picture, I would have suggested we do. As it was, all I had wanted was to make Sookie happy and to tie us together as tightly as possible.

I opened my eyes again to see Sookie smirking at Pam and heard my child chuckle again from behind me. Only Pam and I had access to these items so now I knew why it had taken Sookie so long to return to the headquarters once she teleported Pam here to Hana…they'd taken a pit-stop along the way.

Sookie took the chalice from Pam and held it out in front of me, gazing up at me with love. Without moving my eyes from hers, I held my left wrist over the chalice and made a deep slice with the knife, allowing my blood to run for a few seconds before sealing the wound. Sookie handed the chalice to me and took the knife from my hand, a move that caught me off guard and had my fangs running out even further with desire and awe. I had expected that she would want me to draw her blood for her, but I should have known better. I did know better.

I sent Pam a silent warning to control herself before watching Sookie nick her left wrist and add her blood to mine in the chalice. After a few seconds, she held her wrist out to me, in a silent request for me to clean it. I did so and then rubbed a drop of my own blood on her wound. I understood that she didn't want Jeff or anyone who might watch the video to know that she could heal herself, so we played our necessary roles.

While I was cleaning her wrist, I saw a bead of her blood drip off the point of the blade she was holding at her side. Had Jeff not been there I would have caught it and savored every last drop of her blood, but he'd been doing so well that I didn't want to unnerve him by moving fast enough to catch it. Instead, I watched as it fell and was absorbed into the rocky ground at our feet and regretted the waste.

To stop any further loss of her precious blood, I took the knife back from my wife and cleaned it the same way I had cleaned her wrist. When there was no trace of her left on the blade, I handed it to Pam.

The aroma of our mixed blood was calling me, so I swirled the chalice a few times and then put it to Sookie's lips, saying the words she'd taught me just a few minutes prior, "O wau me oe kealoha a o oe kealoha me ia'a," and then translated for Pam and Jason, "I am my beloveds' and my beloved is mine."

I'd wondered why those words were so important to her, but now I understood. Sookie took a sip of our blood and licked her lips clean, nearly driving me crazy with lust at her innocently erotic actions.

I passed the chalice to her, making sure that I reigned in my raging desire. She smiled at me as she placed the chalice to my lips, fully aware of what the taste of our combined flavors did to me and she repeated my words, first in fluent Swedish and then in English. I drank down the blood, reveling in the taste of our combined flavors and in the continued influx of love rolling off Sookie.

I handed the chalice to Jason, not wanting to challenge Pam any more than I already had; I would clean it thoroughly later. As I was turning back to Sookie, I was struck by a feeling of intense joy coming from her that seemed slightly out of place, even for this happy moment.

I questioned her with a glance but she just smiled widely, took my hand again and turned to face Jeff. I followed her actions, eager to complete this process so I could have her to myself for a moment.

Jeff handed Sookie the Ti leaf and gave me a small, rough lava rock. Together we wound the leaf around the rock and placed it at our feet as an offering for blessings on our marriage and as a physical marker that would remain here at the place where we were united.

Jeff held his hands out to us, smiled and said, "Pili olua e, moku ka pawa o ke ao. You two are now one, the darkness is past."

His words made Sookie's mouth fall open and her eyes fill with tears. I'm sure he'd said those words dozens of times as he married couples and that he couldn't possibly know how appropriate they would be for us, but I hoped with all that I was that he was right.

"Kiss her," Pam whispered from behind me. I didn't need to be told twice, I swooped down and kissed my wife, winding my arms around her back and lifting her feet off the ground. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she returned my kiss with enthusiasm.

We finally broke apart when we heard Jason grumbling good-naturedly. Sookie hugged him and Pam, and I shook Jason's hand and kissed Pam on the forehead, holding her close for a few seconds longer than necessary since she was unwilling to let me go right away.

Jeff shook our hands, gathered his necessary paperwork and walked off to his car. I'd expected Pam and Jason to stay with us for a while but Pam, my glorious child, had other ideas. Clearly she, Sookie and Jason had already discussed this because Pam nodded to Sookie, who hastily began to help Jason gather up his belongings so he could return home right away.

In the whirlwind of activity, I heard Sookie promising Jason that he and his family could return here over the holidays for a vacation. Jason glanced around, looking gleefully at his new vacation home and completely forgetting his concerns about teleporting. His actions confirmed Sookie's natural talent for handling him like a child. A few moments later Sookie blew me a kiss and disappeared before my eyes.

I felt a tear at my heart as she left my side and was hit with the realization that we had just finished our third exchange. That explained why it hurt to have her so far away. It was also the first time she'd left me when I was awake; usually I'd been asleep for hours when she left for Hawaii. She was safe, of that I was sure. It was my distance from her that pained me.

Pam felt my discomfort and took my hand in hers, trying to distract me. "Will you need me to cover for you tomorrow night? You'll be missing at least half of your sleep," she said and I felt a slight bit of envy coming from her, Pam never wanted to be left out of anything.

I shrugged and shook my head, not knowing what to expect. "Thank you for that Pam, for getting Jason out of here."

She smiled at me wickedly, "I'm getting myself out of here too, so I'll expect to be brought back again soon to properly enjoy the island."

I nodded in agreement. I didn't feel the slightest amount of fatigue yet, even though it was just past sunrise in New Orleans, but wondered how I'd do in the next five hours we had before the sunrise here. My instinct was that I would stay awake until sunrise here and wake at sunset back home without any problems. My sleep-wake cycle was regulated by the sun, not by the number of hours of sleep I got...at least I thought it was.

If I did handle the abbreviated period of sleep well, I would definitely be coming back here with Sookie on a regular basis. The idea of having a full night at home to accomplish all my duties and then the next five to six hours in Hawaii with Sookie was incredibly tempting.

Sookie returned and the pressure in my chest lessened. Before she left with Pam, she whispered in my ear, "Meet me on the cliff," and then she nipped my earlobe and rubbed a hand right over the spot in my chest that had been hurting.

Hope and desire tempered the pain I felt when she left me this time but I didn't have more than a few seconds to draw any firm conclusions about her actions before she was back, sitting on the cliff, facing away from me.

I wanted to fly to her, but I tempered my pace, measuring my steps so I could soak in the moment as I walked toward my wife. She was sitting directly on the rocks, her green dress billowing out behind her with her legs folded to the left side of her body. She had both of her hands firmly planted on the ground and the light of her nature shimmered in the dark from her skin and hair.

Through our blood, I could feel the energy from the land seeping into her. It was a heady feeling and I could see why both she and Thalia loved it so much. The only thing I could relate to was the feeling I got when I drew blood from a powerful being when I was incredibly hungry or injured.

Sookie pivoted so she was now facing me on her knees but still with her hands on the ground. I slowly closed the distance until I was standing in front of her and then I lowered myself to the ground, kneeling so that our knees touched. My fingers caressed the soft skin under her chin as I gently tilted her head up so that when she opened her eyes, she was looking right into mine. Her light blue eyes were twinkling with power and a little bit of what I thought must be mirth.

She raised her hands so her palms were facing me and I mirrored the gesture, entwining my fingers with hers and I felt her allow just a trickle of her power to flow into me. It began as a warmth, an enjoyable tingling, and slowly built into an incredible rush of pure and almost overwhelming sensation unlike anything I had ever felt before. I knew this was the same power that had burned me and destroyed the fairy who tried to take Sookie, but it was delivered to me with a completely different intent and that made all the difference. I sat back on my heels and closed my eyes to fully enjoy the experience as she filled me with what I could only describe as life itself.

I don't know how much time passed, but I was brought back to awareness when I heard Sookie giggle as she dialed back whatever she was giving me. I lazily opened my eyes to find her gazing at me with wide, dilated pupils and flushed skin; the expression of a woman thoroughly ravished. I couldn't form any words, still too wrapped up in my own pleasure to think, but I tightened my hands in hers and lowered my forehead to rest on her shoulder.

There was absolutely no way Sookie could have possibly made this moment better, but she did. "I can feel you," she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. "We're bonded. I can feel you through our bond."

Without realizing it, I had pulled her to my chest and was cradling her against me, one hand in her hair and the other at her lower back. We stayed like that for a few minutes or maybe longer, I didn't know or care, time had no meaning to us in that moment.

We were bonded. The concern I'd had that we would not be able to bond due to the magical nature of her blood faded and was replaced with pure joy. She was mine in every way possible and I knew just as well and without any regrets, that I was hers too.

Sookie's fingers began to move, drawing me once again back into the moment. She removed the leather thong holding my hair back and then slowly worked the buttons on my shirt, starting at the top and moving down. When she reached the bottom button, she pushed the material off my shoulders, caressing my skin with her fingertips and lips as it was exposed.

I lifted her up by the waist and we both repositioned our legs so that she was straddling me, still kneeling across my lower thighs. I needed to see all of her beautiful body. I ran my fingers up her arms from her hands to her shoulders and then around her back where I found and slowly lowered her zipper part way.

I didn't want the dress to fall off; I wanted the joy of taking it off slowly. My fingers traced the line of her cheek and then down her neck to her clavicle and slowly moved the soft sheer material to the edge of her shoulder. I leaned in to kiss the exposed skin and used my nose to nudge the material over the curve of her arm. She shivered, not from the temperature, but as a response to my touch.

I loved having this kind of power over her, so I didn't touch the magnificent breast that appeared when the material sagged, but turned my attention to her other shoulder. Once both her arms and breasts were free, I lowered the zipper all the way down and sat back to look at my wife and bonded mate.

Sookie sat on my legs, her chest and trunk bare with the exception of her pendant. Her light green dress pooled at her hips making her look like a mermaid rising from the sea. It took me a moment to realize that her hands were traveling up my arms as mine were caressing hers, but when I processed the sensation of her soft, warm hands on my skin, I pulled her to me and crashed my lips down onto her mouth, drinking in her taste and her breath while I sought out the warmth of her chest against mine. My fingers clutched at her hair possessively, tilting her head so I could reach every corner of her mouth, jaw and neck.

Sookie responded by rising to her knees, giving me fuller access and meeting my kisses straight on. I took the opportunity to run my hands over her breasts and enjoyed the pleasure it gave her when I pinched her pebbled nipples. Her fingers found my chest, the sensitive spot on each side just under my ribcage and the button on my pants. She released it and the zipper, freed me and wrapped her small hand around my length, moaning into my mouth as she did so. I knew that she was feeling my pleasure and so every sensation I received was doubled by that knowledge.

When I could resist her no longer, I shifted to my knees and raised her so she was standing. Her dress fell in a puddle at her feet and I quickly divested her of her tiny underwear and the empty dagger sheath, tossing both items to the side.

My wife stood before me, looking more like the daughter of Pele than ever before. Here she was, naked under the moonlight, glowing with her power, the waves crashing below her and the wind whipping her long hair around her beautiful face and shoulders. At that moment, it was appropriate for me to be on my knees for I was truly worshiping her.

Beginning at her ankles, I kissed and licked my way up her leg to her hip and stomach and then on to her breasts where I feasted and allowed my fingers to seek the wet warmth between her legs. She grasped my hair and when she cried out my name, her voice was carried away by the wind.

I sat back on my knees, wrapped one arm around her thigh and cupped her round bottom in my hand as I buried my mouth in her heat, supping on the nectar of the gods. My other hand continued its relentless search for the spots that I knew brought her the most pleasure. She pulled my hair tightly and her legs shook as I took her over the edge, once again screaming into the night.

I held her to me as she recovered, kissing her stomach and gently caressing her thighs and bottom. When she was ready, she tried to lower herself to me, but I held her upright and joined her in standing as I kicked off my pants and pulled her against my body, just holding her to me, treasuring the feel of her heart pounding against my chest.

After a minute, I put my hands on her hips and raised her in the air before lowering her so that she could wind her legs around my hips as I slid myself into her. I stilled us again, taking in the sensations before she began to move, taking me in as deep as was possible before exposing me to the breeze. The contrast of warm Sookie and the cool breeze only made me crave her more, made me desire to be inside her deeper and to never come out.

I released her with one hand, slid the other between us and felt triumph when she screamed out as I ran my finger across her clit at the same time as I sucked her nipple into my mouth, teasing her with my tongue. Her release was so intense and I felt it so strongly through the bond that I had to take a step to steady myself.

Deciding to allow myself to get completely lost in her, I flew us over to a thick patch of grass and held her tightly to me as I lay down on my back and watched her while she continued to pump herself up and down on my length.

I couldn't resist touching her breasts and running my fingers through her long hair, but my eyes remained on hers, drinking up the love that shone brightly in our connection as we both reached completion, crying and roaring out in desperate need for one another.

000000

A/N: I know, it's strange...a feel good chapter. I won't make it a habit, I promise! ;)


	45. Chapter 45

A/N: Thanks to all of you who reviewed last chapter! Sorry it took me so long to get this out. This month I finally succumbed to the guilty pleasure of reading a published book (gasp..I know, crazy right?) I loved it but totally missed the community that fan fiction offers when I was desperate to yell at the characters or celebrate the love I have for angsty moments in reviews. I really am a FF addict from all angles now thanks to all of you out there. It's like having a really big book club in my pocket!

A big thanks to Jkazzie who caught that I completely blew it in regards to identifying the islands of Hawaii. Kilauea, the volcano where Sookie met Pele and Kane is on the big island, not Oahu. I got it right the first time and then mixed it up many times after that. Sorry all. I've corrected it for this chapter and one day I'll go back and correct the rest.

CH owns SVM, I'm just flexing the character's muscles a bit. All errors here are completely my fault.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate it.

o-o-o

Chapter 45: Cause and Effect

Sookie sighed heavily and nuzzled her warm face into my shoulder. The emotions she expressed with that small gesture were multiplied by the regret and worry that were beginning to run through our bond.

We were cooling back down after a second bout of amazing love making that began on her porch and ended here in the bedroom where she had spent all those years away from me. Being in this space was a bittersweet experience. I reached down, hooked her top leg in my hand and pulled it up and over my hip, making sure to rearrange the sheets so they kept her warm.

"What is it?" I asked quietly, raising my head slightly so I was looking down at her still flushed face and sweat dampened hair that was spread out over the infamous missing pillowcase.

"I don't want this to end," she answered.

I kissed her warm cheek and brushed back some of her hair that was stuck to her temple. "It won't," I said reassuringly. "My schedule will change and I will have to address the needs of my kingdom, but I will make time for you."

I saw disbelief flash in her eyes, but she shook it off quickly. "You'd better, or I might just kidnap you and bring you here each night," she answered sassily with her lips upturned. She was quite an actress, but the bond told me she was still sad.

"That's my plan," I answered and lowered my lips to hers, taking in a little more of her warmth as I kissed her slowly. I had not yet told her that I wanted to extend our time together by joining her here each night, but I couldn't imagine she'd complain and the small trickle hope leaking through the bond told me I was right.

Eventually she broke from me and sat up, causing the sheets to tumble to her waist as her hair settled around her shoulders. I followed her movements and smiled when she held out her hand, "Shower with me?"

What man on earth would refuse that? Certainly not this man. I leapt out of bed and swept her into my arms, trying to distract her from her growing melancholy. She laughed out loud and wrapped her arms around my neck as I made my way toward the thankfully very roomy shower I'd seen through the open bathroom door. It wouldn't be hard to convince her that we had time for another diversion before we had to get back home.

o-o-o-o

I understood Sookie's worry about returning to Louisiana and resuming my routines as king, but I didn't share her emotions the way I would have expected. Surprisingly, I found myself missing the thrill of leadership and most of the challenges associated with it. Of course there was a lot I didn't miss and that would wear on me quickly, but this break had been very good for me. It was no wonder Sophie Ann had taken a vacation each year.

Of course what really made the prospect of returning to my post exciting was that I would have Sookie by my side as my wife and partner. The last sixteen years had been dark times for me, so her constant presence and the happiness she brought me would be a radical change.

Sookie was worried for no reason. We would have ample time together and she would find a position in which she was needed, I was sure of it. Once she had a chance to sit in on all the meetings and get a good understanding of how I ran the kingdom, she would figure out where she would fit best. I had my own ideas, but would leave it up to her as to where and if she wanted to exert her influence and abilities.

I could hear her in the house, occasionally talking to herself as she gathered a few items she wanted to have in Louisiana. She didn't need my help so I'd wandered outside and was standing in her backyard facing the still dark eastern sky.

A smug smile crept over my lips as I noted that I hadn't yet suffered any adverse effects from being awake longer than I'd ever managed since becoming vampire. With Sookie's help, I was breaking free from the shackles that had bound me for so long. It was clear now that I would be able to remain awake for the full night here on Maui and I was so incredibly tempted to wait out the sunrise to see if I could possibly resist the burning effects of the sun. However, I was not able to resist my bride and her request that we wait for another, less important night to explore such things. Despite my own desires, I could certainly understand why she didn't want me to be burned on our wedding night.

I studied the dark sky. While we'd been inside, clouds had rolled in and the moon was now obscured. I watched with dread in my heart, as a small silver cloud with a darker center broke apart, swirling into the night sky until even the denser section had completely disappeared from sight. That's how I saw Sookie…horrifyingly fragile on the outside, but heart strong and infuriatingly hardheaded on the inside…yet still easily breakable.

I would help to hold her together with the knowledge and skills I had learned over the last thousand years…ensuring that she didn't weaken and fall apart. Yes, I knew I would have to figure out a way to let her soar the skies on her own, but I never wanted to be too far away…just in case.

As I watched the night sky, it was the wind that alerted me to the very real danger that had just appeared. I tasted it on my tongue…that delicious, yet alarming scent that told me another sera fae was nearby.

Close, it was too close. I rarely allowed anyone to sneak up on me without hearing, smelling or seeing the approach, but a quick check of my periphery told me that he had simply and silently appeared ten feet to my left.

In the fraction of a second in which I prepared to face him, readying myself for both defensive and offensive measures, my blood demanded that I keep Sookie safe and I instinctively closed off my bond to her so she would not feel my tension. Simultaneously, I jumped back eight feet to where my sword was propped against a tree. My fingers flexed around the grip of my sword, my fangs ran out and my body tensed for battle with every sense on full alert.

A single glance told me who this must be and in a split second, I recalled everything Sookie and Thalia had told me about him. Caution warred with my overwhelming rage, threatening to undermine my control and I was even more grateful than usual that I had adapted to the scent of Sookie's sera fae blood. This was the fucker who had tried to kill my Sookie when she had visited the active volcano, Kilauea, on the big island. If Pele had not intervened, she would have been lost for sure. I fought against my anger and eventually caution won over, bringing with it, rational thought.

My visitor hadn't moved, but was studying me closely. I knew enough about warfare and the sera fae to be sure that if he'd wanted me dead, I would be since Sookie, with her diluted blood could end vampires and fairies with little effort. He'd had plenty of time to attack me when he first arrived, having caught me off guard, but had stayed his hand instead. I wondered briefly what held him back. From all accounts, vampires were known to be dangerous enemies of the sera fae. Why wouldn't he have killed me when he had the opportunity?

It didn't matter why he'd delayed; he'd missed his chance. I wouldn't go down easily now. He had picked the wrong vampire to challenge and the wrong woman to put his hands on years ago. I contemplated my strategies. If he was like Sookie, I could wound him…if I could get to him before he destroyed me. He was tied to the earth, so I could potentially take to the sky, but Sookie could throw fire many feet so it wasn't a sure bet that I could evade him that way.

Speed and flight would be my greatest strengths in this encounter. He could only stop me if he could get to me first. Evasion and then a sneak attack would be my best bet. However, that would leave Sookie momentarily on her own with him and that was something I could not accept, so I held my ground.

He was still watching me carefully. In the absence of his action, I chose to attempt diplomacy. "Kane," I said, barely moving my mouth and I was pleased when he bared his teeth, obviously surprised that I knew his name.

"Animated Carcass," he responded with a quiet hiss that contrasted with his musical accent, "you smell like her, but even worse. I did not think that was possible."

I growled as he insulted my wife, relatively confident now that he would not attack unless provoked since he had not done so already. "What do you want? Why are you here?" I demanded.

"This is my land, my home. What do you want here besides the blood of my kin?" he spat at me and then tilted his head to the side. "Of course it must have been you who were responsible for returning some of that blood to me tonight so perhaps you are the solution I have been looking for," he said with a vicious smile.

I nearly lost my control as I realized that it was my failure to catch the drop of her blood before it hit the ground that had brought Kane here. Sookie was in danger due to my negligence. Kane's eyes quickly flicked toward the house and I forced myself to keep up the dialog, returning his focus to me. "You have no right to claim any part of her Kane. You gave up your right to call her your kin when you tried to kill her."

"Her life is not what I claim, only parts of her blood. That is mine. If I had killed her as I should, all of the blood that is of my people would have returned to the ground and become part of us again, finally purified of the stain of fairy that spoils her."

I dialed back my anger, feeling the need to have more control of the situation now that he was directly threatening Sookie. "From what I hear, Pele does not wish any harm to come to her."

Kane frowned at the rocks at my feet, "My makua is…emotional. One day, she will see that I am right. Look at what the crossbreed does now. She shares our blood with a flea." He gestured to me with an angry flick of his hand and took a menacing step forward, "You are a pathetic creature, devoid of life and magic. You have to steal from others that which you do not have." His voice was getting louder and more passionate and I knew that the time for action was near, so I readied myself as I allowed him to rant. My chances of defeating him increased every moment that he allowed himself to be distracted by his emotions. I flexed my muscles and twisted the corners of my lips up into a threatening leer, angering him further.

"Even now you are benefitting from my blood and it disgusts me," he roared the last three words loudly and I realized that my plan had backfired. His voice reverberated off the house.

No. I had to stop him before she came out here.

I catapulted myself into the air, intending to approach him from an unseen angle, but before I was more than a few feet from the ground, an unseen force hit my body and blasted me backwards and for the first time in a thousand years, I felt cold…chilled to my bones. I crashed to the ground and as I staggered to regain my footing, Sookie appeared in front of me. Her skin, which often took on a dim luminosity when she was using her powers, was glowing brightly as she flung her arms out, causing a shield of some sort to shimmer in the air in front of us.

Kane, who had been thrown back a few steps, roared out in shock as he stepped even further away from the shield, which was clearly causing him physical discomfort. When he was a comfortable distance away, he planted his bare feet firmly on the ground, raised his hands and shot fire at the shield. As the fire made contact with the shield, I could see that it seemed to be a strong but clear layer of hardened air. Sookie gasped when the fire met her shield, but held her ground, adding reinforcement as his fire slowly ate through it.

I carefully studied the shield, looking for a way through so I could get to Kane while he was occupied, but it was solid and I wasn't going to leave Sookie's side to explore too far away from Sookie nor was I stupid enough to try touching it. There was nothing for me to do but wait for one or the other to triumph. Then I could act.

Seconds passed before Kane suddenly stopped his attack and stood staring at Sookie with a hateful glare. Then he disappeared and the next thing I knew, I was in agony as my entire back felt as though it was engulfed in fire. Kane had terraported and reappeared behind me.

I flipped around and bit his hand at the same time that Sookie teleported behind him and screamed, hitting us with the same power she had used earlier. Before I could drink any of his blood, I was thrown off him and into the shield, and it acted as a cooling salve to my burns.

Sookie teleported again so that she stood in front of me and with one hand, pushed me back through the shield. I passed through it with her without any problem; it ceased to be solid so long as she was touching me. She remained in front of me in a defensive posture, the shield now forming a tight sphere around us.

Kane stood outside the circle, smiling gleefully at Sookie with his skin glowing brighter than ever. It took me a moment, as I analyzed our situation, to realize that Kane was doing something to Sookie, but what, I didn't know. Something was definitely wrong with her, her arms and hands were trembling and she was gasping for breath as though she had been running for miles.

I threw open the bond and was shocked to feel that rather than inflicting something upon her, he was taking energy from her and she was weakening, especially with the output required to maintain the shield. The protective roar left my mouth before I could stop myself and I searched in vain for a way through the shield, but found none.

My burns were healing quickly so I pushed as much strength through the bond to her that I could manage. I was amazed when not only emotional strength passed from me to her, but also the energy she had given me earlier on the cliff. She strengthened, but I felt empty and less alive as her gift left my body, and the innate urge to attack and drink was stronger than ever. I fought with my impulses and felt Kane's self-satisfied eyes on me as I did so.

"Let's go," I said through clenched teeth, wrapping my arm around her waist. I needed to get her out of here before she was too weak to leave.

"No," she growled, pushing away from me, "This is my home. I won't let him chase me away from it."

"It is your home only because I allow it," Kane said, taking a few steps closer to us.

"So allow it and leave," she said, holding herself tall and strong although I could feel the energy I had returned to her diminishing as Kane continued to steal it from her.

"You may stay, it must leave," he said, pointing at me. I didn't let myself react to his insult.

Sookie shook her head, "No deal. He's my husband. He goes where I go and I chose to spend time here. Pele called it my home. You can't make me leave."

She was standing her ground when all I wanted to do was take her out of here to where it was safe. Her home was with me now and she had plenty of other inactive volcanic areas she could go to during the day. She had no need for this place anymore.

Kane gave me a taunting smile and then it hit me; there was no way I would back down if I were in her position, she was fighting for her place with her kind. If she gave in, she would be handing over any chance she had at finding balance with the sera fae. She might not be welcome on their turf but she was right, she needed to hold her own or risk being ostracized even further.

I moved my hand to her shoulder and this time, rather than urging her to retreat, I offered her my absolute support. She relaxed a little and I understood that I had been taking emotional strength from her by trying to pull her away from this fight. Even though I understood this, it took all the restraint I possessed to let her challenge this being who was one step away from being a god.

Kane's smile faded and he was angrier than ever. It quickly became clear to me that he must be able hear my thoughts and he had hoped that I would pull Sookie away from here. I would not help him triumph over her in any way. I glared back at him and bared my fangs with the promise that they would be sinking into his skin again very soon.

"You give him our blood and our energy…willingly," he hissed.

"What do you care? I'm not yours," she returned angrily.

"Most of the blood that runs in your veins is mine. It belongs to the earth and I am of the earth herself," he said, glowing brightly as he demonstrated his connection to the earth. "You are a fool. You make him stronger by giving him that piece of you," he warned.

"I want Eric to be stronger," she growled back at him. I glanced quickly at her, wondering how long she'd been aware that she was making me stronger.

Kane clenched his eyes shut, fisted his hands and the ground beneath him cracked. I flinched toward him, gesturing for Sookie to drop her shield. This was my moment. Sookie grasped my free hand without looking at me and shook her head as she weakly tried to pull me behind her.

When Kane opened his eyes again, they were a dark red and his skin looked burnt and cracked. Reflexively, I gathered Sookie closer to me, ready to take flight with her the minute she dropped the shield. She stumbled as she stepped back, she was barely keeping herself up on her feet. The energy I had returned to her was running out and she seemed unable to pull more from the ground while she worked to maintain the shield.

"He is of those that killed my children," he roared as plumes of steam rose from the cracks in the ground at his feet and his body took on new proportions, causing him to appear less human.

Sookie's trembling increased and she cried out desperately with the immense effort required to maintain her shield when she was so weak. I growled violently, furious to be trapped here, unable to defend her from this attack.

"Just like the fairy descendants of Namakaokaha'I and Poliahu, vampires seek us out and try to annihilate us. They destroy our lives and sap our communal strength. Vampires are heartless creatures of death that kill indiscriminately. They killed my children! They will kill you too."

She shook her head, "Eric won't. He loves me as I love him and as you see, he can resist the scent of our blood," she responded, her voice quieter now, sensing the depth of his pain as even I could.

"Vampires cannot love."

"Thalia misses you," Sookie said in almost a whisper and I tensed even more as the words left her lips. "She has mourned every moment that she has not had you and her brothers and sisters in her life."

Kane seemed to sag at the mention of Thalia's name, grief and pain rippled across his face. He released Sookie from whatever hold he had over her and she gasped with relief, but the shift caused her shield to dissipate even though I was giving her every ounce of strength I could through the bond. I quickly shifted our bodies so that I stood in front of her and tried to block her from Kane's sight with my body.

Kane studied our every movement. His red eyes faded back into dark brown and his skin and body became smooth and returning to its original form again. Sookie had hit home with her words about Thalia, but it had been at great risk that she uttered them. There had been no telling how he would react.

"My child Thalia is dead," he said in a tight voice.

"No, Kane, she's just different," Sookie said as she took half a step out from behind me. "If you ever truly loved her for who she is, rather than for simply having your blood, you would find that she is still very much alive."

If I could have spared the movement and the loss of focus on my target, I would have reached out to her as I once again felt her pain from Niall's betrayal.

He shook his head continually as he stalked around the yard, keeping his distance from us. Finally he stopped and looked back at us again. This time my instincts warned me of another type of danger, for I saw in his eyes a different kind of intensity as he studied Sookie.

Behind me, Sookie took a deep cleansing breath of air and suddenly I felt a general sense of wellbeing and belonging blooming within her. I kept my eyes glued to Kane, but was relieved as strength and energy literally poured into her body, healing her completely from Kane's attack.

Kane's eyes flicked to our left a moment before the scent hit me and I quickly repositioned us once again so that Sookie was tucked behind me and angled away from the two full sera fae who were now on her property. I battled with my instincts as I adapted to another alluring scent.

Sookie made a small sound and I knew immediately who this must be. Just like Thalia said she would, Sookie recognized her, and even I could feel the connection Sookie had with the woman. This could be none other than her direct relative, her maker or makua. Had she healed Sookie? I expected so, but I kept both adversaries in my line of sight, ready to strike at any moment.

Sookie continued to focus on the woman, appearing to completely forget about the danger Kane posed to us. Her intense craving to be with this woman added fuel to my already strained control and I clenched my jaw as my body ached to taste the delicious scent coming from the three unique creatures standing before me.

Once I was sure I had complete control over my impulses, I looked more closely at the woman who had so easily caught my wife's complete attention. She was young and of Hawaiian descent. She wore her long black hair pulled up in a ponytail and had soft brown eyes and rich caramel-colored skin. Even in her heeled black boots, she was probably only about five feet four inches tall and wore tight blue jeans, a bright red shirt and a pendant that matched the one Sookie was wearing.

What gave her identity away to me was not her appearance or the pendant, but the expression she wore as she looked at Sookie. In the few seconds that they examined one another, her expression went from deep love and compassion to worry and fear as her eyes turned to me and the way I was physically hiding and restraining Sookie.

The woman's eyes locked on mine and her face hardened as she took a step toward us. Had I been human, my heart would have been pounding from the intensity of her glare. Sookie's words, _'Don't get in the way of a mother protecting her son Eric, you won't like the consequences,' _rang through my mind and I knew this woman was more of a danger to me than Kane had been.

Sookie wrapped her arms around me possessively, carefully avoiding my sword arm and I felt love pouring through her. She was claiming me as her own and letting this woman know that I was not a danger to her.

The woman's stopped walking, her eyes widened and then unexpectedly, she threw her head back and laughed, drawing a ferocious glare from Kane who had been watching this exchange with a satisfied expression. Nothing seemed to be going the way he anticipated tonight. He'd obviously expected Sookie's makua to attack me in order to save her child, but it appeared that this woman had a more open mind than Kane. Of course that went without saying since she had done the unthinkable for a sera fae and had created a line of offspring with fairy blood. She didn't react to Kane's censure, but continued to gaze upon us with a mixture of amusement and pride.

Kane huffed angrily and she turned to him with a quick flick of her eyes. Slowly she turned her head in his direction, her youthful face losing its good humor. She crossing her arms in front of her and gave him a hard glare, "You are forbidden," she said in a strong, unaccented voice.

"As are you," he returned with a tilt of his head.

She nodded at him and then gave Sookie a long look. I was sure from Sookie's emotions that they were communicating telepathically and my suspicions were confirmed when anxiety lurched through Sookie. My free hand shot out to restrain her gently as she reached out to the woman. Sookie's makua smiled at me, shook her head in amused amazement and then disappeared back into the rocks after sparing Kane one final glare.

Kane was still furious as he spoke once more, "You both may stay so long as you do not even think of touching the soil of our home near Kilauea," he warned.

I nodded and with one last glower at me, and another thoughtful and worrisome look at Sookie, he receded into the rocks at his feet.

The second he was gone, Sookie broke my hold and ran over to the spot where the woman had been standing. I gave her a moment before I followed and rubbed her back reassuringly.

She turned to me and although her emotions were whirling, she was smiling. "Holy shit, Eric! Did you see that? She was here. She knows where I am…and she loves us," she said, her voice wavering a little.

Once again I was disturbed by how intensely she was drawn to her makua, I'd never felt this kind of need from her except for when it was directed at myself or Hunter. I shook my head to clear my jealous thoughts; we should not be thinking about her right now, we had other more important topics to discuss.

"They were both drawn here by your blood. One drop of your blood spilled, and it drew two sera fae straight to you," I observed tersely, making it clear that I did not share her feelings of excitement and joy. "Has this happened before?"

Sookie frowned at me slightly and then shook her head, giving my words her full consideration. "No, but I can't think of a time I bled a lot since I heal so quickly. I've broken a wrist here and I've had plenty of scrapes and cuts, but none were so bad that blood dripped from the wound."

She rubbed her sternum with the palm of her hand as though her thoughts pained her. "Hunter's been hurt plenty of times and when he was bitten in Oakland, I'm sure he must have lost some blood as we rushed to the airport." She shook her head, "But he accepted the pa after those events, so his blood wouldn't have called to them."

I remembered a moment when her blood was spilled here in Hana. I'd tasted her blood and spat it onto the floor of the cottage. No one had come to help her then or to cheer me on as I hurt her.

"Your blood must seep into the ground," I mumbled to myself as I put the pieces together.

"What?" Sookie asked, "What did you say?"

"Your blood must seep into the ground," I repeated clearly this time. "Kane said that when your blood seeps into the ground, it returns to him and all other sera fae. That's how they found you." I didn't explain my reasoning, but I was sure that they hadn't found her a year ago because her blood had been spilled inside and had been unable to return to them through the ground.

"Oh," she said, her eyes lighting up.

"No, Sookie," I said with warning in my voice. "Calling them to you when you are in danger won't necessarily help. It would depend on who responds and from what they said, it appears that neither of them are allowed to interfere in your life anyway."

Sookie frowned and then nodded, acknowledging the validity of my argument. "That must be why the Britlingens didn't allow me to fight with anyone until I learned how to control my armor. They always told me that their motivation was that my blood is too valuable to lose, but I'm sure this was the real reason. They're of mixed blood too, so they wouldn't want to draw Kane to them, especially not when they were helping me."

I pursed my lips and determined that she must be right. It hadn't made any sense to me why they had been unwilling to allow her to fight without armor. My hesitation to do so was because of the allure of her blood, but they hadn't had that problem. This connection the sera fae had to one another could turn out to be beneficial or detrimental for us…only time would tell. For now, I'd like to keep the sera fae completely out of Sookie's life, especially with the disturbing interest Kane was showing in her.

Sookie's mood began to plummet and she looked back down at the ground where her makua had been standing. Apparently Kane wasn't going to be my only sera fae problem, but he certainly worried me the most.

I put one arm around her lower back and the other hand under her chin, tipping her head up to force her to look at me. I couldn't help but feel slightly threatened by the pull her makua had over her and I found my arms tightening even more around her, both protecting and possessing her. She was so strong and yet…

"Sookie, what did he do to you?" I asked quietly, running my thumb along her jaw. She tried to feign nonchalance but I felt it and pinned her down with my gaze. "Do not brush this off, Sookie. Tell me exactly what he did to you," I demanded through clenched teeth this time.

She sighed and pushed her way out of my arms a little so she could move as she spoke.

"He cut me off. No, that's not right. He…reversed the energy flow that usually gives me strength. It happened one other time…the first time I returned to Hana after being sequestered away with you. Only that time, it was so much more intense I couldn't even stay awake. I think that tonight it was only his influence on me, but that other time it was the whole of the sera fae, or at least a large part of it, pulling energy from me."

I remembered that day clearly and now, having seen and felt her fatigue, I regretted my extreme reaction to her tardiness even more. Of course I'd been right; she was in danger that day, even if she refused to acknowledge it. This was a terrible power Kane and the other sera fae had over her and perhaps over one another. Hopefully it was a weapon he could only wield while she was here at the seat of his strength or around another volcanic region.

I ran a hand across her forehead and to her neck, assessing her temperature and pulse and was satisfied that she had fully recovered. "And the woman…she gave you the energy back?"

Sookie nodded, a small smile brightening her face. "'Eleu, her name is 'Eleu," she pronounced it _Eh' leu._ "Yes. She gave me my energy back…and then some," she answered and her smile morphed into something sly in nature. I found myself pining for the delicious energy I had given back to her, I knew exactly how she was feeling and why her eyes were twinkling at the thought of the extra energy running through her body. She studied me curiously when she felt my emotions, so I quickly distracted her. She needed to be strong now in case Kane returned. I would not take anything away from her now.

"What kind of magic did you wield against Kane? It was cold," I asked quickly.

She gasped and her eyes widened as I felt a wave of frustration roll through the bond. She quickly turned on me as though she'd just remembered something vital. "Eric! Why in the world did you block the bond? He could have…you could have been…darn it Eric, you know what he can do! Why did you block me out?" she demanded.

I didn't respond, allowing her to draw her own conclusions.

She huffed out an aggravated sigh, shook her head and then gave me a look of begrudging understanding. We were both responsible for endangering ourselves to protect the other.

"Listen Eric," she said fervently, "this is my fight. My people. They don't just fight with strength and speed they way you do." I bristled and she stroked my ego, "I always want you by my side in a battle, Eric. I need your help, your skill and experience but you need what I can offer too, especially when fighting fairies and sera fae."

I continued to stare at her, ensuring that my expression was unreadable to keep this from escalating into a fight. It would be a waste of time anyway; I would not endanger her when I had the choice to keep her safe.

She sighed again and her lips thinned as she made up her mind about something. What? What was she thinking…planning? "The shield is fairy magic. I don't know how to tap into too much of it, but one day during my early months of training I was totally outclassed and I just created a shield without even thinking."

"Why didn't you use it during the last battle?" I asked, frustrated that she might have been able to avoid being hurt.

She wiggled and I released her fully, allowing her to pace as she spoke, "I'm not positive, but I imagine that my magic is weaker than that of a full blooded fairy or sera fae so I figured it would be best not to use their own magic against them. I didn't want to waste time and learn the truth the hard way. I tried using fire against Kane once before and all it did was strengthen him, so I didn't want to make that mistake again." Then she shrugged, "I'm flying pretty blind here, but luckily my strategy worked this time."

"Your reasoning is sound," I responded, impressed with her quick thinking. "I will have Thalia train you to use your sera fae powers even better against the fairies."

"Don't you think that's a little cruel, Eric?"

"No. She craves contact with her people. That is you. Kane certainly won't be spending time with her. We will allow her to prove herself to us by doing this." Sookie's irritation at me was replaced by a warm anticipation; Thalia wasn't the only one who craved her kind.

"I will also contact Bill to see if he has learned of any vampires who were once fairies and might be willing to help you. I can't imagine anyone having the control to stop feeding on a full-blooded fairy, but I shouldn't be able to restrain myself around you and I do, so there might be one out there somewhere."

"Claudine would have helped me," she said wistfully. I nodded. I'd liked Claudine and held her in high regard for her part in protecting Sookie so many times.

We stood quietly, side by side for a few minutes, watching the night sky slowly brightening. Sookie curled her fingers through mine. "Why do you think Kane didn't kill you? He could have, but he chose just to hurt you," she whispered, her worried face taking on a beautiful hue I'd never seen from the pre dawn colors now streaking across the sky.

"You couldn't read his mind?" I questioned.

She shook her head, "No, he kept me out."

"I've been wondering the same thing," I answered truthfully. "It could be that Kane didn't want to risk starting an all out war with the vampires who really don't know they exist for the most part or perhaps he didn't want to anger you that much, but I really think other sera fae are simply not allowed to interfere in your life."

She nodded and glanced at the sky nervously and then back to her house. The sun would be rising in less than ten minutes.

"Go ahead, I'll be fine," I encouraged her, gesturing with my head toward the house.

She looked at me for a few moments and I was reassured when I felt her deep love and concern for me. She scanned the area for minds and finally she was satisfied that we were alone. She ran her fingers down my arm and then teleported into the house to retrieve the things she'd been putting together when Kane showed up.

When she returned with a backpack, I was still watching the sky and it was calling to me more forcefully than ever. It was a strange feeling, after so many years of my instincts warning me to hide from it. Now I craved even the possibility of seeing it and that alone told me that I would be able to resist its damaging rays.

Sookie must have felt my longing because she stood behind me in silence for a while and then she said, "Oh, come on then. There's no point in waiting any longer, you've already been burned once…what's one more burn to a vampire?"

My mouth dropped open in gleeful shock at her words and the way my night had just changed dramatically once again.

S~

I took Eric's hand and led him to the far left corner of my property. Kane had already ruined the dream-like atmosphere of our night and Eric's longing to try and see the sun was pouring off him in waves. To be completely honest, I simply wanted something to take our minds off the worries Kane had wrought upon us.

He would be fine, I knew I could teleport him home the second he started to have trouble, but I was still incredibly nervous, remembering how he'd screamed when exposed to the sun in Rhodes. That was a sound I never wanted to hear him make again, but this wasn't about me, it was about giving him the chance to experience something he'd been denied for over a thousand years. I just couldn't force myself to come up with another reason to make him wait any longer.

Thalia had been sure that the vampire who'd taken her blood hadn't gained anything from her, but Eric was already resistant to silver and we had to find out at some point if he could tolerate the sun. There was only one way to do that.

"You'll be relatively protected in here," I said, opening the door to the safe room. "If we keep the door mostly closed, only a tiny bit of light will be able to get in."

Eric grinned widely, raised me up in the air and kissed me from my bellybutton to my lips. "And if all else fails, my wife will see me safely home," he murmured against my lips. I couldn't help but smile at his exhilaration.

It was getting lighter in the East, so I squirmed out of his arms, pulled him into the safe room and pushed the door so that it was only open a few inches. It was dark inside and Eric took advantage of the situation by groping me and in so doing, he moved me away from the door, allowing him to pull it open a few inches more.

"Eric," I complained but he simply reached around behind me and pinched my butt. He was so excited, I had a hard time keeping my focus on the dangers and that was before he pulled my hand to him and placed it on the proof of his excitement. I had to laugh at him; he was acting like a tween boy about to get his first peek at naked boobs.

"I'm not tired. Sunrise is moments away and I'm not tired," he said in almost a whisper, pulling the door open even farther.

I tried putting my foot in the way of the door, but he ran his fingers up my leg and under my skirt to my panties and I squirmed, losing the placement of my foot and the door opened a full two feet.

Night was turning into day and everything was taking on an orangey-pink hue to it as the sun's light broke more fully above the horizon.

Eric inched forward despite the fact that I was now pulling on his hips with all my strength. "Eric…please…be careful," I begged, hoping with all my might that he would see the sunrise without being burned. I wanted this for him, almost as much as he wanted it for himself.

Giving up on my attempt to keep him ensconced in the safe room, I teleported so that I was standing in front of him. I needed to see his face to determine the very second I would have to get him out of here. He stepped fully out of the room and I reluctantly backed up to accommodate him, my heart was pounding with anxiety laced with excitement.

Maybe it was the daylight, maybe it was the look of absolute awe that he was wearing, but he appeared more human than I had ever seen him look before. His dark blue eyes took on a warmer quality in the sunlight and his pale skin absorbed the pink from the sky, removing the luminescence I always saw coming from him.

As the sun peeked over the horizon, his mouth fell open a little and he squinted his eyes, raising a hand to block the brightest spot in the sky. He began mumbling in the same language I'd heard before that bore a resemblance to Swedish so I was able to catch a word here and there, but I didn't need to comprehend his words to understand his meaning—it was written all over his face.

He held his arms out to the side and tilted his head back, absorbing as much of the sun's warmth as possible and faster than I could register, he ripped off his shirt-exposing his bare chest to the light. He was a stunning sight to see and I couldn't even begin to imagine what this moment must mean to him, but I knew what it meant to me. This was one more way I could help him be stronger, more able to defend himself and less susceptible to falling to our enemy's attack. Relief and satisfaction coursed through me, making the moment even richer. Tears blurred my vision but I blinked them away quickly, I wanted to experience every second of this with him

I think I felt it before he did, or at least before he acknowledged it, when fatigue swept over him and his skin began to tingle. He wasn't in pain yet so I took a moment to get up on my tiptoes and kiss his soft lips, making sure not to block his view. He didn't respond, but the look on his face as he squinted at the sun was more than enough for me.

I gave him a few more seconds as the sensation on his skin slowly intensified and then I picked up my backpack and his sword, gently placed my hand in his and teleported us to our bed in the headquarters.

0-0-0-0

I managed to take us right where I wanted, but unfortunately we were still standing when we arrived. Eric crashed down on the bed into a heap and I heard the bed frame groan under us. Thankfully, I could hear him laughing even though his face was smothered in the comforter.

Much relieved, I jumped off the bed, rolled him over and brushed his hair away from his face. He was somewhere between sleep and wake and honestly, he looked like a very happy, very drunk young man.

His hands weakly grasped my arms and tried to pull me on top of him, but they were completely inefficient. "Get over here, my amazing, sexy, sun-giving wife," he mumbled, "I must thank you."

I laughed out loud, loving this side of him. "No sir. You're going to sleep. You can thank me in the evening," I said, kissing his soft cheek.

Eric's eyes closed and then opened fully with a jerk. "We're not supposed to be here," he said, sounding more coherent, "take us home."

"But we are home," I said, totally confused.

"No…look," he said and his eyes closed again.

I took a breath to question him some more, but then I caught on and keyed into his thoughts. He was thinking about a specific room I'd never seen before. I had no idea where it was, but the image he gave me was enough. I allowed his thoughts to be my GPS and I teleported us to the new location.

The move was almost seamless since we teleported from one bed to the next and the minute we arrived, Eric wound his arms around me weakly pulled me to his chest. "Stay with me," he said, his words slurred and sleepy.

We only had about five hours until sunset, so I agreed and wiggled into his arms, finding my favorite cuddling spot against his chest. He hummed a deep rumble in his chest and it was such an absolutely happy sound, I couldn't help but relax my mind and body.

o-o-o-o

I woke from a dream that I couldn't remember, in which I was deliriously happy, grateful and seriously horny. As I stirred, instead of fading, the feelings grew in intensity. It took me a few seconds and the touch of familiar cool hands and lips for me to realize that I was feeling Eric's emotions rather than my own.

"Thank you," Eric growled in my ear when I reacted to his soft kisses behind my ear.

I sighed contentedly and sleepily decided to refrain from telling him that I hadn't done anything. If this is how he wanted to thank me for loving him, there was no way I was going to stop him. So instead of downplaying the situation, I mumbled, "You're welcome," and heard him laugh quietly. He knew exactly what I was doing.

"Do you want to know how very grateful I am?" he asked, his head moving lower toward my breasts.

"Oh, yes," I responded breathily, smiling with my eyes still closed and winding my hands through his silky hair.

"This is for marrying me in the human tradition," he said as he attended diligently to my right breast. When he was satisfied and I was wide-awake with my body thrumming with glorious anticipation, he moved on to my left breast, "This is for going behind my back to renew our marriage in the vampire tradition."

I groaned, arched my back and bucked my hips against him. I needed more. He just smiled wickedly at me and moved even lower. I cried out in relief when his cool tongue and fingers found what I so desperately wanted him to touch.

"This," he said, pulling away for a moment, "is for completing our bond with the ceremonial knife and chalice." He didn't say anymore after that, but I did. I don't remember anything that came out of my mouth, but Eric definitely liked what he was hearing.

When I was temporarily sated and gasping for breath, Eric crawled back up my body, returning his attention to my breasts and neck and then I cried out with relief as he slid into me-filling me completely.

"This," he said with a groan, "is for giving me the sun." He was so very grateful that I couldn't have responded to him if I wanted, so I simply held on and allowed him to express himself in the way only he could.

As we were nearing the end of both our abilities to hold on any longer, I pulled his head to my neck and wordlessly urged him to bite. I didn't want him to simply lap up my blood anymore; I wanted him to drink it straight from me in this moment of passion. I missed the feeling of his soft lips and cool tongue caressing my skin as he drank straight from me more than I could express.

He stalled for a second; so I called out, "Please!" The word tumbled from my mouth and was a mix between a plea and a command.

I felt his desire, need and love grow even more intense and then he tempered it by whispering, "I'll have even more to thank you for later."

I knew he was breaking our rhythm with this joke to ensure that he had control over himself, so I responded breathlessly, "That's my plan."

He laughed and growled at the same time, then drove me to and beyond the limits of my sanity while licking my neck in preparation for his bite.

Somehow in the midst of my post multiple orgasmic haze, I felt his anticipation and love ratchet to new levels as his teeth slid into my neck and his lips and tongue caressed my skin. I felt joy burst within him as my blood began to pool in his mouth…and then there was nothing…

TBC


	46. Chapter 46

A/N: I'm still here and I learned this past month that if I only have the time and energy to work on one paragraph at a time, it's better for me to just get some rest. I made this chapter an absolute mess trying to get tiny bits done between all the family visits, trips, mild illnesses and holiday celebrations. Finally I've had some time to sit and think and now I'm relatively satisfied. If you're still with me...thank you!

On a happier note, I (well really, we) reached some major milestones last chapter. 1,000 reviews, almost 100,000 views...330,000+ words and starting my second year of posting. I'm speechless and humbled. Thank you...thank you for supporting me and for giving me the hobby my now neglected husband has been harassing me to find for the last six years. :)

Chapter 46: Only One

E~

This latest mess wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been so distracted by Sookie, so focused on her and on what I had done to her just minutes before…but I was and so it did. Not that it really changed anything in the end, but it just added to the toll on my shit list of fucked up things that had happened tonight.

My hand shot out the moment sensed the vampire closing in on my position. Without needing to have conscious thought about it, my fingers wrapped around her neck and I felt the bones and cartilage in her neck grind together and then crack. I released my gasp and she fell to the concrete at my feet in a limp pile, conscious, yet unable to move anything besides her face.

Furious with myself, I roared out my frustration and turned to fend off the attack from her partner.

Alex and Ming had joined my retinue ten years ago, having fled the tightening restrictions on vampire rights in Greece. They had been loyal and useful, and fuck it, they were good at their assigned jobs.

All it took was one glare from me to have Alex dropping his sword before he fell swiftly to his knees. Despite his submissive posture, it was clear that he was still struggling to restrain himself from attacking me to get to the delicious blood that covered my face and hands. His dilated eyes and bared fangs confirmed that he wasn't completely with me yet.

I struck his right cheek with a backhand blow that was hard enough to toss him onto his back and break through his bloodlust without causing him any serious damage. I had enough problems to deal with already without adding a second injured vampire to my troubles.

After a moment, he pushed himself back up onto his knees, blinked a few times and his eyes cleared.

"Majesty," he choked out, lowering himself into an almost horizontal position, "Please forgive us. We did not know it was you. You were not expected yet and the blood…your scent…it is…" He was unable to come up with a word to express the lure of Sookie's blood and I couldn't blame him despite my fury at this whole fucked up situation.

"Stand up," I demanded. He got to his feet quickly, but continued to hold his body in a bent posture. He reminded me of a misbehaving dog holding his tail between his legs, ready for punishment. It was my right and my responsibly to levy out that punishment. They had attacked their King. By all rights, they should be finally dead right now.

"You will tell Lev that you need immediate replacements," I ordered. "You will then take Ming to the Club and see that she recovers." Although Alex's head remained angled down, I saw his eyes widen at my unexpected command. "When she has regained her full strength, you will both report to Will for further instructions. I am assigning you to a new security detail for which you will be starting your training tonight."

"We are at your service, Majesty," he said with relief clear in his voice. Ming mouthed similar words, but her injury impaired her ability to speak.

They were relieved that they weren't already strung up in my dungeons, but they would learn quickly that I had not given them a free pass. I had just assigned them to the dangerous job of being part of our front line security team specifically focused on protecting Sookie. It would be a waste to end them, as I should have the moment they attacked me. But because they both knew that I had spared their lives, they would be even more loyal to me and would put every effort forth into completing their assigned task.

Although I absolutely hated the idea that they knew the scent and allure of Sookie's blood, they had been exposed to it due to my own stupidity and so I would use the situation to satisfy my own needs.

"You will speak to no one but myself, Pam, Will, James and Sheila about this blood," I commanded.

"We will not discuss it, Majesty," he responded earnestly.

I glared at him for an extra moment, sniffed both him and Ming to ensure that none of Sookie's blood had transferred to them from my hands and then stalked towards one of my secure rooftop access doors that would allow me entry into my bedroom.

I was an absolute fucking idiot for not thinking ahead enough to have the guards removed from the rooftop as I arrived. Actually, I should have showered before I left the house, but I'd needed to get away from there as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, leaving proved to be a futile gesture; I could run from the physical space, but the visceral memories of what I'd done to Sookie still haunted my every moment.

I lowered myself to the floor of my bedroom after a short trip through the secure shafts. The moment I landed, I ripped off my soiled clothes and stuffed them into a plastic bag, tying it closed and ensuring that it was completely sealed. I would deliver the bag to Will for use in his training with Alex and Ming. Both of them and especially Ming would be having a very uncomfortable evening as they adapted to the scent of Sookie's blood.

I glanced at my phone as I hurried out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. There was only one new text and it was from Pam. I controlled my disappointment; it was too soon for Sookie to be responding to the text I'd sent before leaving the house.

_'Everyone is gathered. I made a few changes to the memo you texted and sent it out. Be aware, your general announcement has caused quite a stir.'_

No fucking doubt it had. That had been my intent. I wasn't taking any more chances than were absolutely necessary.

At least Pam was keeping her shit together; I could always trust that she would handle things in my absence. She was the only reason I was here rather than back at home still in a shocked stupor, wallowing in my overwhelming confusion and guilt.

A second after I put my phone down on the counter, I was under the hot spray of my shower, removing all traces of Sookie's blood from my face and hands. I spared what felt like only a brief moment to steady myself when I saw the swirls of pink washing down the drain with the hot water.

Suddenly, the shower door slammed open, revealing Pam standing at the very edge of the water stream. She was stressed, and when she looked at me I was irritated to feel the heavy dose of concern that washed through her. I glared at her and she tapped her light blue high-heeled shoe on the tiled floor and clenched her hands on her hips.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. "Everyone is waiting for you."

Fuck. I turned off the water and accepted the towel Pam threw at me and dried myself as quickly as I could.

Based on my original plans, I was early for my first meeting, but I'd moved everything up when my evening went to shit.

"It's game time. You've dropped a major bomb out there with that memo and we've got a lot of quick work to do to keep everyone in line and on board," Pam demanded of me, throwing me a pair of black jeans and a severe black t-shirt, followed quickly by a thick black belt and my steel tipped boots.

Usually Pam liked it when I wore at least a little color, but I could feel her tension. We needed to present a strong front today and this was the first step in doing that. We both knew how intimidating I looked in these clothes; that's why most of my closet was filled with similar items.

As I dressed, I forced myself to step back and study my emotions objectively. I wasn't confused anymore. I'd built a reasonable explanation as to what had happened tonight and the confusion had been replaced by anger, frustration and worry, but I could no longer allow the worry. I blocked it off and dampened my aching bond with Sookie since both served only to weaken me. The anger and frustration, I would keep and carefully use, knowing that they would help me to remain focused and set the right tone for my first night back from my 'vacation.'

"Thank goodness," I heard Pam say from the sitting room where she was warming blood in the microwave.

I finished dressing and left my hair free, still dripping water onto my shoulders and down my back. As I was entering the sitting room, I shoved a thin leather thong into my pocket for use later, and the force of my hand entering my pocket nearly ripped the material of the jeans in the process. Fuck. I wasn't completely in control of my emotions yet.

Pam shook her head at me. "Did you deliberately hurt her?" she demanded as the microwave droned on.

"No," I snapped back at her.

"Can you do anything about what she's doing right now?"

I just growled at her in answer and accepted the warm bag of blood she handed me.

"Then let it go. She'll be here when she gets here. Nothing we do will change that, but if you fuck up tonight, you'll put her in more danger."

"You think I don't know that, Pam. If I'm right about what happened tonight then I've led her right into the lion's den by allowing her to be here with me at all."

"So? Do you doubt her ability to take on a few lions? I don't. Your wife is going to kick ass. I'm just happy to be on her side," Pam said with a growing smile as she handed me a second bag of blood and started warming a third. "You're feeling better. Keep drinking."

She shook her head, gave a little laugh and I felt some of her tension and worry dissipate as we both felt my strength returning.

"How much did you give her? You were so pale you were almost blue."

Although the once preferred taste of the donated blood was now just barely more tolerable to me than synthetic, it quenched my raging thirst. I'd given Sookie more of my blood tonight without replenishing myself than ever before and I hadn't consumed so much as a drop of her blood, so I had been beyond thirsty and clearly a little weak of mind and body because of it. I stopped drinking, looked at her and then finished the last bit in the bag.

"Too much…not enough. I don't know…it didn't help."

Pam's smile faded and she nodded, gave me the last bag and waited patiently while I finished that one off too. I was still licking my lips clean as we made our way through my office and into the secure passageways.

"Did you cancel the first half of Sookie's appointments this evening?" I asked and Pam nodded. "And everything is set for the trial and sentencing?" This time all she did was wave a manicured hand to indicate that everything was in line.

Last night, I'd had Susanna, my secretary (or office coordinator as she preferred to be called), schedule a number of meetings for Sookie to attend so I could introduce her to the rest of my advisors we'd missed meeting because of the extended time we'd spent with Thalia. These were to be more traditional meetings between members of my staff, for while Sookie had been fine with announcing our marriage to the Sheriffs; she'd asked me to hold off telling everyone else.

I'd agreed to wait until the party at the end of the month because I understood her reasoning and respected her desire to prove herself as Sookie, not the King's wife. But things had changed drastically for us this evening and I was no longer willing to allow her safety to be left to the whims of chance. Not when I had an easy fix to this problem. Fuck giving her space. I was already going against every grain in my body by allowing her to return here at all after what happened tonight. I'd give her space in other ways.

As for myself, I'd planned this evening out carefully days ago, making sure everything would be in place so that I would return with a show of power designed to remind everyone that although it had been ten days since I was physically present as King, I was still carefully watching over my kingdom. And I was…vicariously through my excellent team of vampires, Weres and humans, all of who kept me in the loop while I was otherwise detained.

My top priority for internal surveillance for the last year had been four members of my retinue who we suspected of being spies for other kingdoms. Nothing had come to pass regarding one of the possible spies but the other three had incriminated themselves enough during the last year for us to be absolutely sure of their guilt.

One, I would allow to remain planted where he was, knowing that because of his low-level position here, anything he gained from us would cause little risk. I had also been fostering a budding relationship with his Queen over the last few years and that would be damaged if I punished him for his actions, so I would simply have him closely watched for the time being.

The other two were all mine tonight.

We sped through the secure passageways and to my throne room where I would preside over the sentencing of the spies in front of most of my retinue. Before I opened the door, I checked my phone one more time and then opened the bond briefly just to make sure she was still there. The dull ache in my heart told me she was alive and far away, but gave me nothing else.

I squeezed the bond closed again and forced myself to focus solely on my duties, channeling my frustration and anger into something I could actually fucking control.

o-o-o-o

S~

I didn't consciously choose where to go. My wearied and dismayed subconscious simply took me back to the spot where Eric and I had been married last night, seeking comfort and security. I couldn't be with him right now but at least I could be in the place where we had shared so much love last night.

I had no doubt that the energy of the land would help me recover, just as it had done so many times before, but tonight I required more. I needed 'Eleu. I didn't need her to help me heal, but for the emotional support I hoped she could give me. I needed her in the way I'd needed Gran when she was the only one who really understood what I was going through while I was growing up.

I was aware that it was odd and a little worrisome that I was so drawn to her even though I had only just barely met her one time. I couldn't explain it, but I felt as though I knew her and had known her all my life. Although I craved Eric, Hunter and my friends in Hana just as much, I'd never before been so innately drawn to anyone as I was to 'Eleu.

Scratch that. I'd felt a tiny bit of this draw one other time on the night that Appius had died and Claude and I had freed Dermot from his enchantment. We'd curled up together in bed, two cousins and an uncle, healing one another with whatever fairy essence we each had.

I'd enjoyed the innocent cuddling, but I'd felt that the dynamics were just too strange to allow it to be a common occurrence. Now that I was more immersed in the supernatural world however, I was ready to explore this kind of plutonic sharing and didn't see it to be deviant in any way, at least not the way I imagined it would be with 'Eleu.

One thing for sure was that if it were Kane I was drawn to instead of 'Eleu, I would have fought the instinct with everything I had, but 'Eleu, I trusted implicitly for some reason.

Ignoring Eric's warnings, I felt around on the ground until my fingers stumbled upon a small but sharp piece of lava rock. Ruthlessly, I ran my index finger along it until the edge sliced through my skin, causing me to hiss from the pain. The cut was deep enough that a drop of blood formed quickly on my jagged skin.

I waited while the drop of blood grew into a little pool on my fingertip and just before it rolled down my hand, I touched my finger to the ground. The dry earth sucked the blood up greedily but to my disappointment, nothing happened over the next few minutes. Completely exhausted, both physically and emotionally, I curled up into a ball under the warm afternoon sun and let sleep take me under.

When I awoke, the afternoon sun was lower in the sky but still high enough to keep me cozy and warm. I realized right away that I felt good...great in fact. I couldn't feel a thing that reminded me that I'd been hurt just a few hours earlier.

I stretched a little and the gentle movement informed me that my head was resting on a warm lap. Gentle fingers combed through my hair and soothingly stroked my arms. I knew before I even opened my eyes that 'Eleu had come to me as I slept. A contented smile spread across my lips and I sighed happily, feeling absolutely at home and at ease now that she was with me. I hoped that even with my diluted blood, I was able to make her feel as happy and loved as she made me.

"What has happened 'Kaikamahine?" she asked me and I could literally feel the concern and love in her voice.

I shook my head, keeping my mind firmly focused on the present. I was so not going to tell her about the way too personal events that had brought me back here.

She was contemplative for a moment and her lips thinned briefly. I was worried that I'd upset her by not answering her question, but I really wanted to discuss it with Eric first before sharing with anyone else. Thankfully, 'Eleu relaxed again and she played with the chain of my pendant.

"I have given you this pendant to wear to warn everyone that if they hurt you they will have to deal with me. I paid the Britlingens to prepare you to defend both yourself and Hunter. I made sure you had the financial resources to have a safe home. Despite all these steps I have taken to protect you and all the magical defenses you vampire has set up around you, why is it that you are always in trouble, my child?"

I gave a sad laugh, agreeing with her that I was too often injured or in trouble, but that seemed to be my lot in life. And although it disappointed me, it didn't really surprise me too much to hear that the Britlingens had been paid to help us. Yes, I'd thought they'd helped us out of a sense of responsibility to their relatives, but obviously that was just me being foolish and allowing my heart to drive my assumptions. Just because helping others is the right thing to do and something I would personally choose to do, it doesn't mean that everyone would do it. And that right there, ladies and gentlemen, is probably why I was always in trouble.

I should have explained myself, but I didn't want to get into the pathetic excuses about why I always found myself in trouble or argue with her about why I thought the sera fae tradition of keeping out of their offspring's lives was rotten in so many ways. This was potentially my one chance to push for some answers but all I really wanted to do was enjoy her. Besides, I was pretty sure that any answers she gave me wouldn't change a thing, so I just shrugged and smiled self-deprecatingly.

'Eleu frowned down at me and then suddenly her head snapped to the side and her eyes narrowed. When I followed her gaze, I was just able to make out a dim outline in the stand of trees on the far side of my property.

Before I caught her movement, my head was smacking on the hard rocks, having been ejected from 'Eleu's lap as she jumped to her feet and stalked a few steps in the direction of our visitor. Her stance was protective and tense, much more so than it had been last night and the sight made me very nervous.

I stood up quickly and assessed my physical state. I was good to go and so I pulled out the dagger Eric had tucked down the back of my pants and removed it from its sheath. Then I recruited all the defensive magic I had within me so I would be ready to act at a moment's notice.

I would have known that our visitor was sera fae even if I'd had my eyes closed. I could feel it and sense it with my very blood. I didn't recognize the figure, but 'Eleu definitely did and clearly, his presence here was not a good thing.

There was a long, tense silence and then 'Eleu's head bowed and her tense back slumped in response to something she heard from the visitor.

"Do what you must," she seethed as the figure receded into the background.

When she turned to me again, I was disturbed to see that her face was slightly distorted and her eyes had darkened to nearly pitch black in her anger. It was similar to what had happened to Kane last night, only not quite so extreme a transformation. She took a few deep breaths and slowly her regular features returned.

The light of battle in her eyes dimmed and she sighed. "I'm sorry Sookie. If I'd known how very much peril you would face, I would not have interfered with your bloodline."

"Is he threatening you?" I asked, feeling protective of her, especially now that she appeared so downtrodden.

Her eyes dimmed even more, but I couldn't make out the exact expression that passed over her face, but the fleeting thought that it might have been pity made me very uneasy. Perhaps I'd asked the wrong question. In the light of everything, the more intelligent assumption would have been that he was threatening me. Even though I felt so safe with 'Eleu, I had to remind myself that I was surrounded by enemies, not family when I was with the sera fae.

"More like trying to keep me in line," she said, obviously trying to lighten the mood. "The elders are having a hard time trusting my judgment especially where you're concerned. As you know, it's unusual for us to have contact with our children until they mature, so our interactions make them uncomfortable."

"Why? What's going on?" I asked and then jumped when Kane appeared directly behind her.

'Eleu simply rolled her eyes at Kane. "Big Brother," she said, with anything but warmth and welcome. I couldn't miss the double meaning of her words and worried about what he was here to oversee.

"What have you gotten yourself into now, little sister?" Kane mumbled offhandedly, but the longer he looked at her, the more serious his face became. With a small sigh, he ran a hand down her hair in a supportive gesture and then enveloped her into a tight hug. 'Eleu made a barely discernable noise that was frighteningly like a stifled sob and burrowed tightly into Kane's chest.

I had a sick feeling of dread in my stomach as I contemplated the cause of her distress. My trepidation increased as Kane held her, rubbed her back and whispered words to her that either made her squeeze her eyes shut and shake her head or relax and nod slightly. Occasionally he glanced up at me with appraising eyes, but for the most part, his attention was on 'Eleu. Was this the Kane that Thalia knew and loved so deeply? He was certainly behaving differently than I'd seen on the two occasions we'd met before and a tiny part of me was sad that he'd never care for me the way he did for those of pure sera fae blood.

Finally Kane gave her a gentle kiss on her head and they parted.

"They don't understand," she said quietly.

"When have any of us ever understood you, Sister?" Kane said with a small smile, clearly trying to cheer her up. Apparently, it was an old joke because she smiled back and stood taller.

Kane glanced over at me with appraising eyes. "You should not have answered her call, you should have left this to me," he chided her, cupping her face in his hand.

"Right, like she'd talk to you," she said sarcastically. "You've given her so very many reasons to trust you." She turned to me, pulling me into the conversation with a companionable roll of her eyes. I raised an eyebrow in cautious response. "Yeah, good luck with that. She's mine and I know it's early, but I want to be a part of her life, at least for a moment," 'Eleu responded, pushing his hand away.

They both turned to me, studying me closely. I took a step back, readying to teleport away. Something was off, I wasn't sure what, but the feeling had me taking yet another step back away from both 'Eleu and Kane. 'Eleu frowned at my action, but Kane's lips were now turned up at the corners, elevating my level of concern.

"What's going on 'Eleu? Is something happening?" I questioned and I was irritated that my anxiety had come through in the tone of my voice.

My mind frantically ran through all the tiny bits of clues I'd picked up about what might be the cause of her worry and their interest in me now, but I couldn't come to any one conclusion.

She shook her head, "Nothing that wasn't meant to happen," she said, failing to shake the sad look from her eyes.

"That's not very reassuring," I whispered as I narrowed my eyes and shored up my magical defenses. I also clenched my hand around the hilt of my dagger, although the thought of using it on either of them, even in defense, made me sick.

'Eleu smiled at my response and it actually reached her eyes this time. "No, it never is," she answered and she held a hand back toward Kane to keep him where he was as she took a step towards me.

"Sookie," she began, her brown eyes pleading with me. The expression in her eyes was so endearing that I couldn't look away. She was my makua and I wanted to help her, to ease the need I could feel coming from her. "Tell me everything about what happened earlier that left you weak and covered in your own blood and that of your vampire."

I lost my sense of gravity and I couldn't help it; my mind reviewed the early evening's events in much greater detail than I would have ever wanted to share with anyone. There wasn't a thing I could do to stop it. I didn't feel glamoured since I was aware of what was happening, but she had been able to urge me to think about something I'd wanted to hide from her, so I must have been. I couldn't even formulate thoughts to encompass how scary it was that they could control me through glamour.

When my mind cleared of my disturbing memories, I was surprised to see 'Eleu and Kane standing inches from me, both staring down at me in absolute shock. I jerked back from them, rethinking my innate desire to trust 'Eleu. I opened my mouth to yell at her, but she beat me to the punch.

"You asked your reluctant vampire to bite you and to drink your blood?" 'Eleu demanded of me incredulously, her voice rising in pitch from her anger.

"Why in the hell did you do that?" I spat back, crossing my arms in front of me and hunching my shoulders. I was still recovering from the shock and outrage of being forced to share such intimate details with both 'Eleu and Kane.

"You were not willing to do so without my suggestion and this is something we need to know about. I saw some of the events in your dreams after you called me to you with your blood, but we needed the whole story."

"You could have simply told me that," I snapped, "I'd have been willing to help you," and then I gasped. "Can all sera fae do that to me?" I asked, my voice small with worry. Oddly enough, I was less worried about Kane than the others I hadn't met yet, I was getting used to Kane's bark and had seen another side of him today that I could almost appreciate. However, the thought of what one of these 'elders' could make me do was absolutely terrifying.

"No," she said with a smile. It's a connection only between a makua and his or her offspring. It's quite limited…a type of suggestion really. I couldn't actually make you do anything more than I did tonight."

I let my breath out in relief, my eyes flicking over to Kane involuntarily.

"I have my own ways of getting the information I seek," he said, but the look on his face was more taunting than threatening and I sent him a withering look that he returned in spades before glancing back over at 'Eleu.

"The question you need to be asking her, 'Eleu, is why she was so incapacitated with pain from her vampire's bite? He bit me last night and all I felt was the simple pain of his fangs. He has bitten her before. Hasn't he?" he demanded of me. I nodded in response. "And this is the first time you were so impaired?" he asked.

I relaxed my shoulders and arms and thought about his word choice. _Impaired_. That certainly was a quick and easy way to explain the horrifyingly familiar experience of feeling nothing…nothing but the unbearable pain of burning hot glass shards running through all of my veins. It succinctly described the experience of not being able to breathe or move. It also described the horror of watching Eric suffer through feeling my pain and thinking he was going to lose me, so I nodded again.

'Eleu reached out and clasped Kane's hand, whispering with the excitement of new knowledge and hope. "I was right. This confirms that the vampire's bite is not fatal as we always assumed."

"Yes, but with the reaction she had to his bite, she was as good as dead. I knew I was inclined to let the vampire go for some reason," he taunted good-naturedly. He might not be able to admit it, but he was just as excited as 'Eleu was at the possibility that they might be able to escape the death sentence of the vampire's bite. It was just easier for him to fall back on his pattern of picking on me than to get his hopes up. Asshole.

'Eleu glowered at him and her hand glowed brightly. Instantaneously, Kane flinched, growling as he pulled his hand away from her, shaking it in pain. His eyes lit with playful challenge and for a moment he reminded me of Jason when we would get into fights as kids.

Although Kane didn't appear to be doing anything, 'Eleu swayed weakly and then fell onto her butt with a plop. The minute she landed, she made a sound that was a cross between a giggle and an angry cat's yowl. She stayed on the ground with her fingers weaving into the rocks beneath her and I could feel her filling herself with excess energy just like a child would gather up snow to build into the perfect snowball to throw at her sibling.

Watching the two of them together nearly made me laugh; they were exactly like two over-excited and quarreling kids. Instead of laughing, I cleared my throat loudly to get us back on task. Seeing their easy camaraderie made me eager to get home to Eric. I'd leave right now, but they needed the information that apparently only I could provide them with before I left.

Kane probably still had it in for me despite what seemed to be a temporary truce and I was still upset with 'Eleu for 'influencing' me, but I felt the need to do this for them and for Thalia.

Two pairs of eyes looked at me sharply. "Listen," I said, "clearly…physiologically, we're different from one another…and Eric biting me is different in intent than a vampire biting one of you or another vampire biting me might be, so you have to take what I say with a grain of salt."

'Eleu stood up and nodded but Kane looked at me like I was speaking in tongues. 'Eleu sighed and mumbled, "I'll explain the idiom to you another time." He was still confused and his expression made him look young and more approachable. 'Eleu waved her hand at me, prompting me to continue.

"I agree with 'Eleu that it's not the vampire's bite that kills." I said, looking directly as Kane. "Eric has bitten me many times and I've never felt anything but incredible pleasure."

The look of absolute disgust on Kane's face was extremely satisfying. I sneered at him knowing that I'd been so graphic in my word choice just to annoy him a little and was pleased to hear 'Eleu giggling at his reaction. Hey they'd already seen Eric and I in action from my memories, unwillingly shared mind you, so I had nothing to hide or be ashamed of, thank you very much.

"However, the two times that someone actively drew blood from my body, I was left…impaired. Just as Thalia explained had happened to her when she was drained, I was unable to move or defend myself in any way. So it's not the bite, but the reaction we have when our blood is drawn from us that leaves us ripe to be killed.

"The last thing Eric wants to do is hurt me so he stopped drinking the minute he felt my pain though our bond. I would have been nearly drained and too weak to defend myself by the time I could move again if it had been almost any other vampire."

"So the mechanics don't matter," Kane hissed and the gleam in his eyes faded, "the end result is the same."

"Yes they matter!" 'Eleu argued. "You managed to get away last night before he drew your blood. Both you and Sookie have proven that if we can get away from a vampire before they draw our blood, we can survive and continue fighting. Maybe we can even find a way to break free once they start drinking too, although if our reaction is the same as Sookie's, we'll have to deal with extreme weakness." Her eyes sparkled with her excitement. "We have to get the word out and find a way to do some controlled studies."

Uh oh, that didn't sound too good for the vampire involved. I glared at 'Eleu and she wiggled her hand at me, telling me not to worry.

"I didn't do it," Kane said quietly.

"What?" 'Eleu asked, her attention directed back at him.

"I didn't fight her vampire off when he bit me…she used Poliahu's sky magic to blast us apart," he said as he scowled at me.

"I didn't do it to help you, so think nothing about the fact that you owe me for saving your life," I snapped at him, deliberately poking his ego where I thought it might hurt most.

He bared his teeth and the ground under his feet began to crack. 'Eleu sighed and shooed him away with a quick flick of her hand and a few choice Hawaiian swear words. He held up two fingers and then faded into the rocks beneath his feet.

"I have to go," 'Eleu said, excitement still shining in her eyes.

"Wait," I said, "tell me please. If Kane and other sera fae hate fairies so much, why did you deliberately create offspring with fairy blood?" I probed for this information gently; well aware that I was asking what could be a very personal question.

"I…I thought it might help," she said simply, looking away from me and my mouth dropped open in disbelief.

"You thought it might help…to bring mixed blood into an already violent situation? That's…that's just…" I shook my head in wonder at her foolishness.

She shrugged, "Don't think I haven't heard enough about it already. I know it's hard to understand why I would have thought that because your life has been so difficult…but despite everything, I still believe that it might help."

"If we survive," I said caustically.

She gasped and frowned at me, "You will survive. You must. You are unique and so are more than either the fairies or the sera fae. You just need time to mature and to grow into your powers and then you'll be able to walk on both sides of the line."

I was still glaring at her, "Walk both sides of the line? I can't even find my balance in the middle without one or the other side trying to take me out," I ranted.

"You don't have to find balance, Sookie. You, by your very nature, are balanced," she said with a smile. "And you're already doing so well. Most young ones would have destroyed everything within twenty feet of them each time they were threatened or hurt. We've never seen a young one with as much control and restraint as you have. I've never been more proud or impressed."

She glanced at the now empty tree line and then back at me. "It must be the fairy blood in you because emotional restraint is not one of our strengths," she said with a small self-deprecating smile. Her eyes twinkled and she whispered conspiratorially, "I blame Pele for that."

I gaped at her, wondering if she shouldn't have said that but she continued with a more serious tone of voice. "Even Kane was impressed with the control and compassion you displayed last night." I looked at her skeptically.

"It's true. He would not have backed down from the fight if he found you to be without value. He would have at least killed your vampire once he'd weakened you enough. He had the right to do so since they are our mortal enemies."

I clenched my fists in rage at the thought of Kane hurting Eric.

"See what I mean? Your control is admirable."

I didn't see what she meant, in fact, I felt in less control of my emotions then usual when I was around her and Kane, but I didn't want to argue with her anymore so I just nodded.

"Please be careful, Sookie. There are dangers all around you. Two thirds of our children don't survive beyond two hundred years. They usually don't have the control needed to hide from the fairies or the ability to fight them off, and control is something only time and practice can teach you. Even if I can try to help you, over half of those who have chosen to procreate have been captured by fairies or killed by vampires, usually when they are trying to help a child. Our lives are perilous."

"Captured," I said dully, feeling sick at the thought. I knew all too well what it was like to be captured by fairies.

'Eleu paled when she heard my thoughts. She moved closer to me and held me in a tight hug that eased most of in of my memories. "Yes," she said quietly, "Most don't survive long once they're taken, but one of my brothers has been missing for over a hundred years. He was taken to Faery so there is no chance of ever getting him back, but we can feel that he still lives. We know from the energy we share the moment when someone accepts the Pa and also know when he or she dies. That is a horrible thing, and I hope you never feel it, but I'm sure that someday, you will."

Niall. Niall is doing all of this, and for what? An old and almost forgotten feud? He's kept someone away from his home and family for a hundred years. What in the world could they be doing to him for so long? Surely they'd broken him for any information he had by now. It just didn't make sense.

Wait. "'Eleu, do the sera fae have any fairy prisoners?" I asked carefully.

Her face hardened and I knew I wasn't going to like her answer. "Yes," she snapped. "It's one of the reasons I had to go out on my own again. I don't believe the elders are following the correct path towards solving the problems we have with the fairies."

"You think?" I muttered, sickened even more by this information. Anger ran through me again, causing some of the rock I was sitting on to crumble. Why the fuck couldn't they figure out how to stop this feud?

'Eleu took a step away from me and I reached out a hand to halt her action but she shook her head.

"It's time. Please use extreme care…and…" she glanced away from me and toward the trees where our visitor had been standing, "follow your heart. It should lead you in the right direction," she said, losing some of her assurance with that last bit. Then her sincerity came back with force. "I don't want to lose you," she said forcefully.

"I intend to be careful," I replied honestly, but I didn't make any promises beyond that. I felt like there was a strong possibility that I was being, maybe not played exactly, but led toward something unknown and I wasn't going to make any promises I couldn't or shouldn't keep. She watched me for a long moment and then nodded.

"I have to go." She leaned over and kissed me quickly on both cheeks and then took her hand and pressed it to mine so our palms were touching. "Give this to your vampire," she whispered as she filled me with the excess energy she'd been building into the 'snowball' she'd never thrown at Kane. "This is my gift to him for sparing your life."

"I will." I said with a half-smile, still being cautious with the use of the word or intent of saying, 'thank you'. "When will I see you again?" I asked as I stood with her.

She shook her head, "Hopefully not for a very long time. I want you to have a quiet and safe life Sookie. Embrace both sides of yourself. The more you experience and explore, the stronger you will be in mind and body."

She reached into the back pocket of her jeans. "This is for Hunter. Desmond wasn't able to locate him before the Britlingens took him away, so I'll have you deliver it for me." She handed me an envelope that felt as though it contained a letter and a pendant within it, just as mine had.

I accepted it sadly and my eye was drawn to a small white piece of paper discretely stuck to the backside of the envelope. Written on that paper, in handwriting I'd seen on my letter were two of the words she'd written to me once before.

_'Trust none'._

I glanced back up at her with wide eyes, begging silently for more information, but she carefully shook her head to dissuade my question.

She squeezed my hand one more time and her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. "Both you and Hunter are loved. Know that I will always be fighting for you. I knew you would bring hope for us all and now the others will see that I was right to create you. There is another way for us," she said and then she was gone.

"Wait! 'Eleu? What do you mean? Another way than what?"

Darn it! What in the hell was going on that all the sera fae seemed to know about and why were they keeping it from me? Who was I not supposed to trust? Something was very, very wrong. Even my skin was crawling with the feeling that I was walking blindly into a deathtrap.

I turned around in a full circle and searched with all my senses, but nothing was nearby…at least not at this very second. I wasn't really worried about the sera fae hurting me, they'd had their chance, but they knew about something that would certainly be trying to get to me.

I took a few steps back until I was on the edge of the cliff and my paranoia reached new levels. Everywhere I looked, I saw a potential haven for my enemies. Sera fae could appear from the ground, sky fairies could teleport through the sky and the water…the water behind me, that I'd never been completely comfortable with when I was in my human form, sustained and concealed the water fairies and their allies. I turned halfway around to gaze at the water, not able to fully turn my back on the land and saw the sun sinking closer to the horizon, bringing with its descent…darkness and vampires.

Fuck. I had to get out of here before I drove myself crazy. But before I ran, I forced myself to reclaim my emotional ownership of this land.

The sera fae wouldn't hurt me here. Pele had assured me of that. The fairies couldn't come here; water or sky and I knew exactly how to defend myself against vampires. This is a safe place for me.

I repeated those facts to myself a few times like a mantra until I could breathe again.

Damn 'Eleu, Kane and the 'elders' for making me feel so insecure. I planted my feet and spoke out loud so the earth, sky and water would hear my words.

"I refuse to hide just because my life is dangerous. I accept what I am, even if you do not. I will find balance and if others try to push me around, I'm going to push back."

Of course nothing happened, I didn't expect it to, but I felt better for having staked a claim on my own life and future.

After a few minutes of wandering my property, I released a deep sigh, picked up the sheath for my dagger and slid the blade in before tucking it back down my pants. Then I removed the cell phone from my front pocket, again grateful to Eric for his quick action of placing it there before I just barely managed to leave his side this evening. My heart tightened at the memory of his suffering and I let out a small breath of relief when I realized that I'd only been here for just over two hours. It had been more than enough time for me to recover, and now I could return to my heart and my true home.

There was one new text message from Eric, sent right after I'd left. It simply said:

_'I love you too. Be safe. Come home soon.'_

I had to get back to him right away. There was so much I needed to explain.

000-000

A/N: Yes, I know I left out a huge chunk by not recounting exactly what happened after Eric bit Sookie. I have it written, but when I started with that section, it felt too emo for me and that's not where I want to go right now in the story. If you're really confused, take a look at the last third of chapter 19 where Jeanne heals Macey and if that's still not enough, I'll publish the details next chapter.

000000-00000

A/N #2:

If you're interested, let me bend your ear for a moment to make a reading recommendation.

Parallex Worlds by treewitch703. It's a story about Godric, rated M - Drama&Hurt/Comfort.

Treewitch has crafted a story unlike any I've ever read on fanfiction or honestly, anywhere else. She is truly an artist. In her own words, from her wordpress site, she says regarding Parallex Worlds:

"This is intended for mature audiences. It contains graphic depictions of, or allusions to, life from about 100 BCE (while the Dacian Kingdom in the Balkans was coalescing) through the Era of the Roman Empire and up until more modern times. Life was cheap and in some instances horribly brutal."

While that's absolutely true and hard to read at times, she's managed to completely hook me with rich emotion, unique structure and mind boggling historical details. (I was just quoting some of her many footnotes to my husband tonight.)

This is not an easy read, nor do I believe that it is intended to be, but that only makes it better in my estimation. It took me a long time to get through the first few chapters because of the mental energy and effort she demands from her readers with each and every sentence. That meant I couldn't read this one in line at the grocery store. Try it and keep pushing through; even when you feel like you're missing something (like enough brain cells to understand her craft), it's well worth it!


	47. Chapter 47

A/N: You don't need to rub your eyes, this is actually a new chapter. My co-worker has returned from her five month emergency maternity leave after giving birth to a healthy little girl so I am back to my regular hours and my tired brain can finally make room for working on the story again. This chapter is named after a song by my current musical muse, Madeleine Peyroux. CH owns her characters, I'm just playing with them.

The very night I started back working on this chapter, I received the most unexpected PM from the fangreaders awards panel. DeadAlone has been nominated for best Angst fanfic. Thank you those of you who nominated this story! If you want to see the whole list of nominated stories and vote, go to www. fangreaders. blogspot. com

0-0-0-0-0-0

Chapter 47 Everybody's Talkin'

I teleported back to our bedroom, but it was empty so I pulled out my phone again and sent a reply text:

_'I'm here and all fixed up. Going to take a shower.'_

I hated texting even though it was the main way Hunter and I had communicated for most of the time he was in high school and college. It always seemed impersonal and right now there was so much I needed to say and share with Eric that I'd be working that tiny keyboard all day if I tried to even give him a synopsis of what had happened in the last few hours. So I left it brief and simple; I'd be seeing him a few minutes anyway, so it hardly mattered.

One look in the mirror over the dresser confirmed that I'd had an interesting night, even for me. Dark red blood covered the left side of my face and neck, but unfortunately, that wasn't too unusual. What really stood out was that I was glowing from within more than I'd ever seen. I knew that this happened whenever I was using or building up my power, but I'd never looked at myself in the mirror while I was doing that. To be honest, it freaked me out a little.

I took a few calming deep breaths to see if it would fade and when it didn't, I came to the conclusion that the glow was a side effect of 'Eleu's gift. It wasn't extreme, but I certainly looked more supernatural than was the norm for me.

I couldn't wait to fill Eric with this much energy. Having learned recently that I was able to make him stronger with my blood, I was eager to help him in any way I could. Now I certainly understood why he was always happy to give me his blood when I was human, it was a heady feeling to know that I could strengthen the one I loved.

Normally, I'd be uncomfortable accepting and passing on a gift from someone I didn't know well, but I had no doubt that this energy was good and pure. It matched exactly with what I already carried within my body so I had no fears of giving it to Eric and he was going to go nuts when I did; it was multiple times more than I had given and then taken from him last night. Maybe this would be the little extra he needed to complete whatever the Ancient Pythoness was warning him he needed to do. Or maybe it would help him defeat Wu whenever she came, because if Eric said she was coming, then she was coming. We just didn't know when.

Thinking about Eric had me closing my eyes and running my fingertips over the exact spot where he had bitten me. It was completely healed, but I could still feel his lips and tongue on my skin. I shuddered as I remembered the feeling of his teeth sinking into my skin and how he'd hummed with pleasure as my blood filled his mouth. I loved that I could do that to him…give that to him.

I opened my eyes, staring blankly at my own image in the mirror as a cold chill settled over me, snuffing out the memory of the warmth and joy we'd been wrapped up in together. Everything had changed in the matter of a few seconds. What had once been the most intimate form of sharing our love became a nightmare—not just for me, but for Eric as well.

I hadn't been able to feel it because of the intense pain I was besieged by, but I clearly recall seeing Eric reeling back in shock with my blood cascading from his mouth when he pulled away from me in horror.

The cold chill surrounding me tightened its grip, squeezing me until my knees shook and I had to lean on the dresser for support. I pulled my hand away from my neck and looked at the dried flakes of blood coating my fingertips.

Never again.

My hand trembled and a few flecks of blood floated to the dresser and I finally processed what my overwhelmed subconscious had been trying to tell me for the past few hours. Eric and I would never share that form of intimacy again. The cold, hard truth of our reality rang through my tired mind and threatened to break my heart.

I had to see him. I needed to touch him. What happened this evening had the potential to drastically alter parts of our relationship and I needed to make sure we were all right. I had faith that we were, it would take more than this to break us, but there was that small piece of me that needed to see him to prove it to myself.

I felt for him in the bond that had been muted by our distance, but hit a thick wall of resistance the minute I reached out for him.

He'd shut me out.

I forced myself to calm down, there was a reasonable explanation for his actions. He must be involved in something he didn't want me to feel-it didn't necessarily have to mean that he was in trouble, cutting me off or pushing me away. He wouldn't do that. I knew he wouldn't.

Then what was wrong? What was going on and why in the world would he want to keep me from it?

I'd promised not to delve into his mind just as he had promised to stay out of mine, so instead I would search for him in other's minds and hopefully find Pam, Will or James so I could give them a nudge to have Eric come to me. I could text them too, but I really wanted to know what was going on right now. Despite my efforts to convince myself all was well, I was becoming more worried by the second.

I lowered my shields and was immediately struck by how very many minds there were in the building. I hadn't been here when Eric's full contingent was present and it took me a minute to adjust to the sheer noise of all the minds. The cacophony was made worse by the fact that many of the individuals were vampires and so their thoughts were much less clear and consistent to me.

Once my head stopped swimming, I was able to determine that almost all of the vampires were gathered in Eric's throne room. There must have been thirty or so, and they were all intently focused on Eric. Thank goodness he was all right, but even though his face was a mask of cold indifference, his anger surrounded him like a dark cloud and I couldn't yet determine whether his anger was offensive or defensive in nature. it didn't help me that every mind I found was filled with tightly restrained bloodlust. What the hell was going on?

I flipped through mind after mind, searching for Pam. Each mind had a slightly different flavor, but the barbaric tone was consistent and I shied away from it. This was the side of vampires that I was slowly beginning to understand more each time I delved into my own propensity for violence and anger, but I still didn't like it in them or in myself.

I skimmed between each mind until I found two spots in the room with inverse emotions from the majority and my mind was drawn to them like the vortex of a whirlpool.

The next moment, I was looking up into Eric's dark and heated eyes locked in his cold and impassive face. It took me a moment to figure out what was happening, the kneeling vampire's thoughts were so garbled with fear that they were nearly unintelligible. But then, like a rock to the head, I got it.

Instead of moving to someone else's mind, I slammed my shields up as hard and fast as I could. But I wasn't able to pull away fast enough to miss the sight of Eric's powerful frame looming closer to the vampire through who's mind I was seeing as he dealt what could only be a killing blow with a heavy sword.

I heard myself scream out and when I opened my eyes, I was kneeling on the floor of the bedroom with my head in my hands and my blood pounding through my body.

Dizzy and nauseous from the terror of the vampire's last thoughts, it took me a few moments to reach for my phone when it began to ring. I fumbled for it on the dresser and pressed the green strip on the screen without really looking at it.

"Eric," I breathed shakily, unable to get my lips to fully cooperate with the commands of my brain.

"Sookie," Pam's gleeful voice greeted me. Her voice easily conveyed her excitement with the events that made me sick. Would I ever be fully comfortable in the vampire world?

"My God, Pam, what's going on?" I demanded desperately, not able to hide my anxiety.

"You saw." Pam laughed. "Oh, he's going to love that."

Sarcasm, meet frustration.

"Pam! What the hell happened? Do you need help?"

"No. Relax, Sookie. I'm calling to tell you that Eric is indisposed at the moment, but you're already aware of that, aren't you?"

I ignored her mockery. "Is everything alright? I saw what just happened but I don't understand. Has there been an attack or did someone try to overthrow…"

"Be quiet, Sookie." Pam interrupted "Stay where you are and listen to me. Eric is in the middle of sentencing some spies we found in the kingdom. He cannot be interrupted but he knows you are back and he has told me to check on your wellbeing."

"I'm fine, Pam," I said and even I noticed that my voice sounded overwhelmed and stressed.

"I'll alter the tone of your response a little to give him a tiny bit of relief from his worry," she said sardonically and I knew I'd stepped in it. Pam would have had a front row view of the strain Eric had been going through tonight because of me.

I paused a moment to gather myself, I wasn't helpful to anyone like this. "I'm sorry for what both of you went through tonight," I said with a stronger voice. It needed to be said, to both Pam and Eric although it would probably just piss Eric off to hear me apologize since this wasn't something I could have predicted or controlled. Pam simply responded with silence.

"Look, I know he's busy so it's not possible," my stomach flip-flopped as the image of what was keeping him busy, "but I was just hoping to see him right away."

"Can't happen, Sookie. Unless there's a dire situation, this is the way it's going to be from here on out. He is King."

"I understand that, Pam." I said with a muted sigh.

"Good. I could pass on a message to him if you want."

"No, I can wait, so long as he's okay."

"Trust me, Sookie, he's in his comfort zone right now. You should see him," she said and her voice rang with pride.

"Should I be there, Pam? Would it be better for him politically if I was with him right now?"

"No, Sookie. Here's what he wants you to do."

0-0-0

I kept my shield tightly shut after that, there was no way I wanted to see any more of the trial and sentencing. I'm not totally witless, I knew this would be a part of our lives and of Eric's responsibilities, but if Eric didn't need me there, then I certainly wasn't going to put myself through the stress. It's one thing to watch an execution, but to feel the bloodlust and fear...no thank you.

I showered and dressed quickly in one of Miriam's designs and then donned most of the silver jewelry I had. I glanced at my clock. Pam had told me that James would be waiting for me in the hallway at midnight and it was two after the hour so I took a deep breath, opened the security doors between our rooms and the hallway and stepped out into my new world.

James wasn't there yet and although I knew exactly where Eric was, he'd wanted James to escort me to another room where Eric would go after the sentencing. So just to be safe, I carefully lowered my shields again, making sure I didn't listen to anyone in the throne room as I waited for James to arrive, feeling distinctly like a pre-teen waiting for her tardy older brother to pick her up from school. I found one vampire mind and a few humans busily focused on their work in their offices, everyone else was tucked away with Eric. Nothing worrisome caught my attention and I found myself pursing my lips with impatience. Where was he? This was so stupid. I could have walked there already or teleported there directly minutes ago.

I understood that Eric and by association, James, was busy and I didn't expect them to stop their plans for the night to accommodate me. All I wanted was a few minutes to give Eric 'Eleu's gift and to explain what had happened earlier in the evening to relieve Eric of some of the worry and guilt I'd felt cascading off him earlier. We could discuss everything else later.

A few moments after I entered the hallway, a door opened and the vampire within silently stepped into view. His light green eyes focused in on me and I knew, without even hearing his mind screaming, _'Fairy!' _that trouble was brewing.

Fuck. I so didn't need this tonight.

Blocking my scent didn't seem to be enough to hide the fact that I looked more like a fairy than a human these days, especially when I was sporting 'Eleu's glow. I should have teleported back into our room, especially now that I knew how dangerous vampires were to me, but I didn't. Instead, I decided to hold my ground even though I could almost feel 'Eleu and Eric glaring at me with disapproval. It wouldn't do to start out my time here by running away from every vampire I saw, I would be working with them every night. I had to draw the line somewhere.

Gently, I wove my mind with his and inhibited any action that would bring him closer tome, taking care to hide my influence as much as possible. His body paused but his mind raced with images of taking me into a quiet corner and draining me, knowing that we were alone and no one would know he had done it. He knew this building was warded against fairies and surmised that I must have been brought in by force and then had somehow escaped my confinement. He figured that I hadn't already teleported away because of the ward and so I would be easy pickings. If he could just decide how to get me alone, no one would have to know that he'd ever seen me. I held onto the reins of his mind tightly, and didn't let him make that decision.

"You're a fairy," he crooned quietly, his eyes wide with wonder.

"Yes. And I am under the protection of the King," I warned. That's all he or anyone else needed to know.

"Then, under the order of protection from our King, I am duty bound to ensure your safety. Allow me to escort you to the King's office." He wanted to move, but my influence kept him back.

I shook my head at him, and if the situation hadn't been precarious, I would have laughed at his audacity. Did he not have enough respect for his King to heed my warning?

"Are you not afraid of angering your King?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Ah, there it was. He was indeed afraid of Eric and very loyal to him, he simply didn't believe my claim. All right then, I could handle this. So long as he was loyal to Eric, I wouldn't hold it against him that he wanted a taste of fairy. He wouldn't be getting any, but I didn't blame him for his natural urges.

We were staring one another down when James' mind appeared from the room I'd been blocking. Just as suddenly, I was assaulted by dozens of other minds, all filled with bloodlust and picturing Eric beheading the two vampires on trial. For a split-second, all I could see was the terrifyingly determined and threatening glare in Eric's eyes as he carried out the brutal sentences.

My control slipped and the vampire made his choice and so I made mine. Raising my shields and trying not to overreact, I released my power at him as he darted toward me.

The effect was instantaneous, as I knew it would be. He screamed out in pain as his chest erupted with burns from the heat of my power and his trajectory reversed so that he flew backward into the wall with a loud thump and then crumpled to the floor. His yell alerted everyone who had been headed back this way from the sentencing and drew them straight to us. James appeared first, fangs out and sword ready. He slowed and looked at me with a questioning glance when he saw the male on his back, moaning in pain.

I shrugged my shoulder, which caused James to laugh as he put his sword back in the scabbard at his hip. "I guess Eric didn't get around to informing everyone that he'd added a fairy to his retinue," I said nonchalantly and a few of the vampires who had gathered around us laughed, others frowned at me angrily. Their opinion really didn't matter to me at the moment, I didn't want this guy to get into more trouble because of me. He was just being a vampire, not disloyal to Eric. Besides, he'd already paid a pretty high price for his actions.

James walked over to the supine vampire and callously stepped on his blistered chest, causing him to groan in pain. I cringed and had to look away. My eyes met the worried face of Sol, the sheriff of Area One. She was watching James and Yancy closely and appeared to be restraining herself from intervening. Apparently, James outranked the sheriff of the Area when in this building, but Sol definitely wasn't comfortable with the situation. Her eyes flickered to mine and a small frown formed between her eyebrows.

"What time did you enter the building, Yancy?" James asked, his voice more serious than I'd heard it before and it pulled my attention away from Sol.

"I just arrived about five minutes ago. I had a meeting with the Lieutenant Governor." Yancy spoke through clenched teeth and his eyes were wild with pain and confusion.

"Have you checked your emails yet?"

"No," he said managing to look chagrinned through the pain.

"Why not?"

"I was distracted last night and forgot to charge my cellphone," Yancy responded, embarrassment now coloring the tone of his strained voice.

"Ah. You'll want to make sure that doesn't happen again. As it is, I'm assuming that you haven't had the chance to read the directive from the King in regards to the new member of his cabinet. Is that a correct assumption?"

"Yes, Sir. I have heard no such news. I was told I could be late so long as I attended the mandatory meeting later tonight," he answered.

James nodded and removed his foot from Yancy's chest. He motioned for me to join him.

"Sookie, this is Yancy Hammond, Junior Member of our Human Relations department."

I ignored the few gasps and whispers coming from the vampires around us at the mention of my name and nodded down at Yancy, who had carefully pushed himself up so that he was propped against the wall. His burns were still intensely blistered, I'd hit him a bit harder than I'd intended, but I was sure that no one who saw him like this would try anything with me in the future. Maybe this was what Eric was hoping would happen tonight by having me walk to see him rather than teleport or use the tunnel system to get to him. Come to think of it, this might be exactly what I needed to start on even footing here. Message delivered and received: 'Sookie is a co-worker, not a snack.'

"It's nice to meet you, Yancy," I said with a smile that I have to admit was a bit cocky.

"Yancy, this is Sookie Stackhouse, the King's new top-level advisor."

The whispers increased in intensity and Yancy's expression glazed over oddly for a moment and then sharpened with the fearful realization that he'd just assaulted a top-level member of the King's retinue. I actually felt bad for the guy. After a log moment, he schooled his features and nodded at me.

James then bent down so he was inches from Yancy's face. If I hadn't been so close, I wouldn't have been able to hear what he said next but the vampires around us wouldn't have any trouble catching his words. "Unlike some here, you clearly don't recognize her name, so I'll let you in on a little secret."

I put my hand on James' shoulder but he raised his other hand, motioning for me to hold my tongue. Darn it. I didn't want this coming out. James should know that. Even though the sheriffs already knew, I'd asked Eric to give me a few days to settle into things here before he made the general announcement of our wedding and bonding. I didn't want his people to treat me differently based on our relationship; I wanted to earn my place.

James returned all his focus to Yancy and since I didn't want to make a scene, there was nothing I could do to stop him now.

"Not only is Sookie a member of the King's cabinet, but she is also his wife and bonded mate."

Yancy's mind went blank with terror and James turned away from him, looking pleased with himself. I glared at him but it was his turn to shrug as shocked whispers rang through the hall.

"They'll all know in two hours anyway."

"But..." I began.

"He changed his mind. He decided it was too dangerous for you to remain unclaimed by him and obviously, he was right."

I huffed out a frustrated sigh, irritated that I'd have to try and dig myself out from underneath the title of the 'King's Wife' from the get go.

"Sookie, were you injured in any way?" James asked; his voice returning to what I was realizing was his 'official' tone.

I shook my head, deciding to let go of my irritation as I saw an opportunity to repair at least part of this situation. "No. Yancy simply got a little too excited about having the chance to escort me safely to the King. No harm was done...to me at least," I answered.

Yancy looked up at me in shock and I met his confused gaze with a small smile. Oh man did he owe me and I was pleased to see that he was well aware of the fact that he wouldn't have lived to see the next night if I'd told James straight out that he'd attacked me.

After a minute of glancing between the two of us, James nodded, effectively putting the issue to rest.

"You are ready to join the King?" he asked me.

"Yes," I answered, thinking about what a long strange trip this night had already been. We'd only taken a few steps through the gathered group of onlookers when I heard Yancy staggering to his feet behind us.

"Wait, James! Did you say Stackhouse? Her name is…Stackhouse?"

James and I turned and a shudder ran up my back when I saw what Yancy was holding out to me. James didn't miss my reaction and with two barely perceptible movements, he positioned himself between Yancy and I, while at the same time, he pushed a button on a small device he wore on his hip.

Within five seconds, four vampires I hadn't seen before had positioned themselves between Yancy and where we were standing, having been directed as to the source of the threat by James. Two more, a red-headded female and a tall dark-haired male stood to either side of us. Eric's security team was good.

James glanced at me quickly and the look in his eye had me opening my mind to him.

_'What does he have?'_ he asked me silently without looking back at me.

_'It's a letter from Niall Brigant. I can feel fairy magic coming from it,'_ I answered succinctly. I'd also recognized the light blue wax seal and just knew that it was imprinted with the head of a unicorn. Although I could feel that there was fairy magic on or in it, I couldn't determine the intent of the magic and that's what scared me. Yancy could effectively be holding a letter bomb of frightening power.

James' lips tightened slightly and as he stepped forward, the male and female closed ranks around me. I guess these were my guards for the night.

"Where did you get that?" he demanded of Yancy while gesturing to the envelope.

The younger vampire looked down at his hand, his expression perplexed as though he was shocked to find something there. He frowned and shook his head, "I don't…I just knew it had to be given to Sookie Stackhouse," he mumbled, looking even more confused.

James nodded, pulled out his phone and swiftly sent a message to someone.

"Hold onto it Yancy, Maeve will be here in a minute to check for spells."

The tone of his voice had many of the on-looking vampires taking a few silent steps back. I almost chuckled, remembering how quickly all the vampires in the room had hit the deck the second I'd shouted the warning that the Fellowship was about to wage war on the vampire headquarters in Dallas all those years ago. Unless there was a higher motivation, vampires were all about self-preservation.

_'This has happened before,'_ James told me silently, _'when Niall has wanted to get a message into a warded building. We'll have Maeve do a sweep for magic and then take the letter to a more private space if it's safe to open.'_

I didn't have the chance to ask what we'd do if it wasn't safe because suddenly the crowd surrounding us tensed even more and parted as Eric and Pam appeared, flanked on either side by Will and Sheila.

As always, Eric stood out from the crowd in appearance and demeanor, his mere presence demanded attention. Everyone gave him a deep nod and their deference to him was palpable just as it had been with Sophie-Anne. He stopped about five feet away, quickly assessed the situation and then looked at me, his dark eyes boring into mine from his beautiful but blood spattered face.

The wall he'd erected to block our bond melted away and suddenly I was awash with his concern, anger and love but through all those emotions, he was pummeling me with forced calm.

The calm helped me to resist the deep need I had to throw myself into his arms, to kiss him and reassure him that I was safe after the horrors we'd shared earlier in the evening. I stayed where I was and kept my emotions off my face, but he continued to send me calm. It took Pam smirking at a female vampire near her who gestured between Eric and I for me to figure out why he was still sending such heavy amounts of calming influence. He expected me to put up a fuss about his impending announcement of our marriage.

I made my emotion clear through the bond. I didn't care about that anymore, there were too many much more important things that we needed to discuss. I was a little disappointed that he didn't know that I wouldn't argue with him about something like that in such a public setting, it would weaken him terribly in the many eyes around us if he allowed me to speak to him in that way. Of course, I'd not been so careful about holding my tongue when publically facing Sophie Anne or other monarchs in the past, so I guess it was reasonable for him to be concerned. But I was different now. I wouldn't weaken him in that way. I wanted to be an asset to him, to strengthen-not weaken him.

Within the next second, I had a major epiphany. I had already strengthened him with my blood and energy and now I could strengthen him even more in the eyes of his retinue. the ones who were here had seen the results of my powers and had heard of our marriage. Word would be traveling quickly tonight; this was my chance to make a gesture for maximum impact.

I filled the bond with love and respect, trying to tell Eric that his worries were unnecessary—that he could trust me not to hurt him anymore. Then I forced my eyes to leave his so that I was looking at his hands which were relaxed at his sides, a result of a millennia of practice controlling his body language. As I moved my gaze, I deliberately and consciously choose to give up a tiny piece of my own stubborn pride to offer him more power and stability in the eyes of his people. And then I bowed deeply to my King.

I stayed down a little longer than necessary to give me time to school my features as Eric's astonishment and carnal desire overwhelmed my already shaky emotions.

It sounds like a little thing, bowing to a King—to a man I loved desperately, but relinquishing control (even the perception of it) was something that I was deeply uncomfortable to doing. I'd survived all the challenges life had thrown at me, from the time I was a small child, often by holding onto the inflexible rules I set for myself with my eyes screwed shut.

I needed to let go a bit. If I wanted him to trust me, I had to start by showing him that I trusted him. It was time for me to hand over a tiny piece of my control and if the fact that the mere thought of doing so made me feel like I was exposing myself, weakening myself, then that was my own problem.

Yes, I'd told Eric that I wanted to be respected as his equal, and I still do, but when I saw him here among his fellows, I'd realized that respect wasn't something I could force from anyone. I had to earn it. I already knew this-it's the reason I didn't want to be seen as riding on his coattails as his wife. Eric already respected me but if we tried to force others to do the same, I was sure that it would backfire right into Eric's face.

As I stood up and looked back at my husband, I knew that I had done the right thing. All eyes were on us, and all of Eric's concern and doubt about my potential actions had faded, now replaced by desire laced pride. I guess submissive Sookie was a big turn on for him. I gave him a not so gentle nudge through the bond to remind him that this submission was temporary and situational in nature. Humor flooded the bond and hie eyes twinkled with mirth. He gave me a small smile and then turned to James as Maeve came rushing down the hall, her arms full of magical supplies.

"I'm sure you all have important work to be doing," Eric said to the gathered vampires, "so you can attend the mandatory meeting tonight without falling behind in your duties."

His words had an immediate result and before Maeve reached us, everyone but Eric, Pam, Yancy, Maeve, the guards and myself had silently disappeared. Eric gestured to the six guards I didn't know and they left without comment.

As soon as we were alone with our core circle, Eric closed the distance between us and took my hand in his, rubbing his thumb gently over my skin. He was still restraining himself in public and I knew it was something I'd have to get used to but it was a huge shift from the last few weeks. It wasn't just a vampire thing—the first lady never jumped the president's bones in public. I was used to living a very private public life so it shouldn't be too hard for me to adapt. I gazed up at him and smiled. He responded with a wave of deep love that more than satisfied.

I kept my distance from Maeve, the discomfort that existed between us was only worse when she was actively using her magic. About three minutes after she began, her magic subsided.

"It's the same as the others. The only magic is in the seal preventing anyone but Sookie from opening it. Unless they've found a new way to cloak it, there's no magic inside."

"Thank you, Maeve." Eric said as she excused herself and walked back down the hallway. "Sheila, take the letter to my office. We'll be there soon. I need a few minutes here first."

Eric let go of my hand and slowly walked over to Yancy, giving the younger vampire ample time to imagine the horrors of what was coming. Eric normally looked threatening enough, but tonight, he was exceptionally fearsome covered in the blood of other vampires.

Eric stopped right in front of Yancy, invading his private space some as he looked down on Yancy's burned chest. He reached out and carelessly pulled the remains of Yancy's shirt from his healing flesh, causing him to flinch in pain.

"James, you were here, has the punishment met his crime?"

"Yes, Majesty," James replied from behind us and I could hear the smile in his voice.

Eric nodded, "I can smell that you never touched her. If you had, I would be washing your blood off my face like that of the others who tried to betray me. As it is, you will not change or wash until tomorrow. You will come as you are to the meeting and you will tell the truth about what happened here," he ordered.

Yancy bowed, "Yes, Majesty," he sputtered, obviously relieved at Eric's restraint.

Eric turned and took me again by the hand. "Take us home," he whispered into my ear and I complied immediately, taking us to our home on the outskirts of New Orleans.

The minute we arrived, he pulled me into his chest in a surprisingly chaste hug given what was going on in the bond. We'd only been apart for a few hours, but it felt like so much more time had passed since I'd touched him, felt him. Our need for each other was intense but all we could do was hold onto one another.

"You are well? You've recovered?" he asked, his voice nearly a whisper against my hair. I nodded and slowly his hands began to move along my back and down my hair.

He turned me around so my back was pressed to his chest and his lips found mine and he kissed me so gently, I felt tears spring up in my eyes. We kissed for a long time, his hands slowly moving over my body, skimming my breasts and caressing my thighs and stomach. I didn't realize it right away, but we were rocking, almost dancing, to some slow, passionate tune Eric was hearing in his mind. I relaxed into his rhythm, while running my fingers through his soft hair and over the long, firm muscles in his forearms.

Slowly his lips left mine and journeyed down to my neck where he gently sucked and licked at my skin. Simultaneously our passion faded away and was replaced with grief and longing.

"I will miss this," he breathed.

I let my head fall forward as I was suddenly wracked with sobs as we were faced with the reality of what we had lost in the last few hours. Eric scooped me up and carried me over to a comfortable chair and sat down holding me tightly to him as I continued to weep.

I tried to keep things in perspective, I knew this wasn't the end of us, but him drinking and enjoying my blood was something incredibly intimate that we'd shared and that connected us in a way nothing else could. The stark realization that he could never drink directly from me again was like being told that although we could touch one another, we could never kiss again and it broke both of our hearts a little.

And that was just the impact for me…for him, drinking blood was a necessary, an innate need-a primal urge and I couldn't satisfy that need for him anymore. Now that I couldn't be his provider the way that I wanted, the idea of him feeding off anyone else as I had encouraged him to do just a few days ago, destroyed me.

I knew he was feeling all my grief and feelings of inadequacy wrapped up in my regrets and when I looked back up at him, the sadness in his eyes deepened my despair.

"You told me that when you healed your friend with your blood, the price of her healing was pain. I didn't realize that the pain came from her drinking your blood straight from you or that it was so intense."

"You couldn't have known. I didn't know," I said after I slowed my tears some.

"If I had known…"

"I know. I'm sorry I pushed you to do it."

"We had to find out sometime. It was better we learn this lesson together rather than when you are under attack." I nodded, but stayed quiet, resting against him.

"I understand you grief, I feel it too, but what is this other that you are feeling…this uncertainty?" he said to me pointedly, caressing his hand gently over my heart.

I put one hand over his and blinked a few times to clear the tears away, unsure of how to express my emotions. His curiosity grew into frustration as I delayed. He placed his fingers under my chin and tilted my head up so I met his eyes.

"Do you think that because I can't drink your blood directly from you body that this will impact the way I feel for you? Is that why you are feeling such uncertainty?" His accent became more noticeable as irritation replaced his sorrow.

"No," I answered honestly as I rubbed his hand with mine.

"Then why are you feeling this?" he asked, pressing his fingers once again into my chest.

"Because sharing my blood with you in that way is something I want to give to you, to do for you." My voice became thicker as I fought not to let my tears fall again. "It's something you've always loved and that's tied us together. You need it, not just the blood but the act…it's innately essential for you, and it hurts to know that I can't give it to you anymore."

His eyes softened and he raised his eyebrows, still digging for the whole truth.

"I just feel broken, inadequate and sad," I said, closing my eyes.

There was an extended pause but I felt his frustration fade and his determination take over.

"Yes, I will miss it, but in a way that is similar to how I miss driving my corvette—it is in the end...unnecessary. Enjoyable, but unnecessary," he said. "I have lost you before and it was not drinking your blood that I missed most. I have you now and so how I get my sustenance has little meaning to me. It will have no impact on our relationship at all," he said, kissing my forehead. "I can and will control my desires.

"Besides," he said as a smile spread across his face, "if I understand correctly, you can still share your blood with me, we'll just have to be more creative about how we do it."

I gaped at him, completely bowled over when he winked at me lasciviously and allowed his eyes to roam unabashedly over my body.

"How is this a bad thing?" he asked me.

Oh my…there was a bright side to the equation. Leave it to Eric to find it and to try and convince me that the other side didn't exist. I really wanted to believe him.

"You don't need to worry, Sookie. We will adapt to this, as we will to everything else that comes our way."


	48. Chapter 48

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed and all the new readers who joined the story this month! If you haven't checked out the Fangreaders Awards, I'll shamelessly report for probably the last time (unless I really crank the next chapter out before April 21st) that Dead Alone has been nominated in the category of Best Angst. I've found some great stories I've never heard of before on the list, so check them out and vote at www. fangreaders. blogspot. com.

Chapter 48: Gestalt

I continued to soothe myself by curling into Eric's familiar body and saturating my senses with his presence. I knew he was doing the same but within a few minutes, I felt the shift when we both slowly stopped dwelling on the past and began to plan for the events in our immediate future. It was a good thing, a healthy thing—we needed to move forward and not let this one loss derail us.

Eric was better at this, having had so much more practice than I, but I was getting better at acknowledging things and then moving on rather than simply sweeping them under the carpet. Dealing with things head on was harder in the short term but I knew it was a necessary process in living a long and emotionally stable life. There would be times for cutting off emotions so I could function in a particular moment, but in the end, everything had to be evaluated and processed with a clear mind so they didn't end up biting me in the ass at a later time.

Eric smiled at me, his pride in my developing control apparent through the bond. I ran my fingers through his soft hair and gave a small teasing yank to let him know I was alright. Taking this as his cue, he stood, and carefully placed my feet on the floor next to him. He returned my gesture and tugged my hair so I looked up at him and my knees weakened when I met his intense dark blue gaze. I knew exactly what that look meant and it was just what I needed right now. My body tingled in response.

He released my hair and once again, I was caught off guard when he stayed his passions to, of all things, talk.

"Come," he said, smiling wickedly at my impatience, "we both must shower and get back to look at Niall's letter before I publically claim you as my wife and bonded."

Even though his words caused me to feel anxious, I was now convinced that this was the right course of action. Besides, I doubted there was one person at the headquarters who hadn't heard the news of my return and our marriage/bonding by now. I didn't say a thing, but Eric must have felt the hitch in my emotions or maybe he simply anticipated my reaction.

"If I was less selfish, I would let you hide in Hana to avoid the shame of being outed as my wife," he said and thankfully he let some of his humor slip through so I knew he was teasing me and not truly hurt by my reluctance. "It is much safer there for you and Sheila could stay with you night and day...perhaps it would be best."

I glared at him playfully, "Not gonna happen…buddy."

"Buddy?" He scoffed, laughing out loud and he pulled me firmly against his side as we entered the huge bathroom I hadn't had any time to explore yet. "I haven't heard that one in so long."

"Really? You mean no one calls you 'buddy' these days? That can't be good for your humility," I teased, laughing at the thought of what would happen if anyone in his retinue ever did call him 'buddy'.

"Around vampires, I do not need humility and no one has ever dared to call me that except for you."

"That's why your life was so boring without me. Even Pam has to kiss your butt occasionally, but me, I can say it straight." I knew I was full of it, no one could be as blunt as Pam, but we were both trying to lighten the mood so I'd give myself some poetic license to exaggerate the truth.

There was a time I would have scoffed at what I surely would have seen as his blind arrogance in thinking that he didn't need humility, but I understood him and his world better now. I saw how something like obvious humility would be not only seen as a weakness, but would actually be a real disadvantage for him. Eric needed to always be in control, to always be seen as the strongest leader so that he would not be questioned or doubted by the other vampires in his kingdom.

Although it sickened me to see or be a part of the violence inherent to both out kinds, it was what would sustain us and ensure our survival. I was willing to overlook, accept and participate if that was what was required of me if that meant we would be safe.

"From what I saw earlier, you don't have to worry about being seen as having too much humility or being weak. By the way," I started as I surveyed the beautiful bathroom, which showcased a monstrous sunken tub connected to a glass walled shower by a short set of stairs, "nice employee incentive strategies you use." I looked down at the blood spattering his and now my clothes. "Most companies use bonuses, stock rewards, raises...but I could see how this would be very effective."

"You will learn how I do things over time." His eyes flashed as he allowed his gaze to travel slowly over my body. Yes, I have learned how he does things and I wanted him to teach me everything all over again and again.

I nodded. "Yes, I will, since I'll be staying right here by your side."

He stared at me for a long while and finally he bent and kissed my forehead and then pulled my ruined shirt up and over my head.

Finally.

"I'll never want you to leave, but we will have to change the way you do things to make it safe for you to stay."

What? I blinked at him, confused about where this was going and why we weren't heading in a much more pleasurable direction.

He dropped my shirt on the floor, unfastened my bra and let it slip down my arms as he stroked my breasts with his hands, trapping my nipples between each of his fingers in turn. My head dropped back and I had to work to focus on his words because at first, all I could hear was myself moaning.

"First. You should never have left our quarters without checking to see if James was there to protect you. You should not have been in the hallway alone." He turned his hands over so he was caressing me with the backs of his long fingers. He stopped with one nipple caught between his index and middle finger of each hand. I gasped and held tightly onto his flexed arms as he ran his thumbs over my sensitive nipples.

Not. Fair.

If he wanted me to hear a word he said, he would have to stop this right now. I only had a little bit of restraint left before I completely jumped him right where we stood.

I placed my hands over his, halting the movement of his thumbs. "Why didn't you just let me teleport? That's one of my greatest advantages over vampires," I asked and my voice was breathy with need. Eric smiled down at me without humor and I got my voice back. "You were testing me!"

He nodded remorselessly and moved his hands down my sides, unfastening my skirt, and let it drop to the floor around my feet. "You and the other members of my retinue. Will was nearby, you would not have been hurt."

"I wouldn't have let myself be hurt, Eric. And I didn't sense Will anywhere around me." I said as I pulled his shirt off, tossed it into the pile of my clothes and allowed my fingers and lips to explore his broad chest.

Two could play at this game.

Eric hissed when my mouth closed over his nipple and my fingers found the soft, sensitive skin just above his jeans. "He was cloaked. He has learned in the last few days that he can hide not only his body but also his mind when he needs to." My hands and mouth stilled and I frowned up at him. "He never had the reason or means to test that out before."

Interesting but also a little disturbing. I didn't like the idea of Will lurking in a corner somewhere without my knowledge. Even though Eric obviously trusted him, I wasn't very comfortable around him, so this really wasn't good news for me.

I pulled away from him, "Don't do that again." I demand. Unfortunately the power of my words was weakened by the fact that I was stepping out of the lace thong Eric had just worked down my legs.

"I might. I'm supposed to give you space to learn how to defend yourself in real-life situations. This was a good learning opportunity for you and one that I can accept."

Rather than getting upset, my heart ached at his words. I knew how hard this all was for him and I simply couldn't be angry. Instead, I leaned forward and kissed his chest and then unfastened his jeans and worked them down his hips.

Eric kicked his pants away, took my hand and led me into the huge shower. He adjusted the showerheads to accommodate the two of us and we stepped under the warm water. I ran my hands up his back, loving the feel of the water coursing down his defined muscles and between my fingers. I followed the rivulets of water down to where his back narrowed and was about to get down on my knees so I could nip and kiss my favorite part of his body when Eric interrupted the mood again.

"Second," he continued and I giggled reflexively. I couldn't help it, I just found the incongruity of his continued lecture with our situation and the obvious sexual tension between us to be too much to ignore. Eric simply turned around to face me and shook his head seriously. I gave him an innocent look and stood with my hands clasped in front of me patiently waiting for him to continue. He smiled at my actions but stayed his course. "Yancy should never have had the chance to get anywhere near you. You should have either called to one of us telepathically, teleported back to safety or killed Yancy the moment he first threatened you."

I opened my mouth to explain myself, but Eric shut me down again with one look as he began to work shampoo into my hair, massaging my scalp gloriously in the process. "Do not argue about this Sookie. You will gain nothing by putting yourself in danger simply to prove that you're tough. You'll prove this in other ways or in situations that cannot be avoided." I nodded and gestured for him to bend down so I could soap up his hair. He was right and I knew it.

When I was finished washing his hair, we both rinsed and then cleaned one another's bodies, our desire growing with every lingering touch. Finally, he pulled me to him and raised me up so we were eye to eye. I wrapped my legs around his waist and our wet and warm bodies slid together perfectly.

"Third," he said and then waited until I focused my eyes enough to look at him. "Let me repeat myself," he said in a rough voice while slowly moving me up and down on his length, "we will adapt to these changes as we will to everything." I caressed his wet face and kissed him sweetly, licking away the drops of water from his soft skin. When our lips parted, he closed his eyes, "But I never want to hurt you like that again."

"You won't," I promised and my breath hitched as I wrapped my arms around him and pulled us even closer together. I loved him so much; it hurt.

"No, I won't," he agreed and began to take me with impassioned thrusts. He'd said all he needed to say and our conversation was over. I held onto him and tried to keep up, knowing that despite his confident talk about finding creative ways of sharing blood, I would have a battle on my hands getting him to trust that he could do it without hurting me. Well, I was up to the challenge. I'd done it before and I could do it again.

When I reached my peak, I bit down on his neck with my blunt teeth and took a small but forceful sip of his sweet blood. Eric roared and finished a second later, slamming his back into the wall of the shower.

"I love it when you do that," he moaned into my neck. I laughed and licked the last of his blood away. At least I could still make him feel good that way.

We held each other for a while and I tried to catalog everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours.

"Did we really only meet with Thalia 24 hours ago?" Eric nodded. "What a mess," I said, resting my forehead on his cheek.

Eric smiled, kissed me gently and then lowered me to the tile floor. "I have seen worse."

I couldn't stop my lips from turning up at the corners when I felt his humor and growing sense of hope. We dried each other off and I knew as I led him to the bed, that we were going to be just fine.

"Come here," I said, now tugging on his hand and smiling widely, "I have something to give to you."

Eric's eyes flashed with excitement and he jumped onto the bed, lying on his back with his long arms and legs outstretched. He understood exactly what was coming and knowing how incredible it made him feel, I couldn't wait to give it to him.

0-0-0-0

Forty-five minutes later I held my breath, hoping that Eric's ramped up luminosity from 'Eleu's gift wouldn't be as obvious to everyone as it was to me, but that hope faded the moment we entered his office through our private passageway.

Pam, Sheila and Will stopped talking to a dark haired vampire and stood up from where they'd been leaning over a large iPad with him. All three of them gaped at Eric with blank faces. Sheila started to say something, but just closed her mouth when Eric sent her a glare demanding that she keep quiet.

She and Will glanced at one another and then nodded to Eric while the new vampire gave Eric a deep bow.

"Majesty," he rumbled in a deep voice.

Eric made a quick gesture and everyone but Pam left the room. I sensed that Will took up his station outside the door with James while the male vampire went down the hallway with Shelia.

Pam held her tongue until everyone else was gone. "Holy lightening bolt, Sookie. What the fuck did you do to him? What? Is that glow some sort of fae STD?"

"Jealous?" I teased, trying to hide my growing apprehension.

"Are you crazy? Yes. Of course I'm jealous. Eric looks like he's twice his age now and three-times more powerful."

"I couldn't tone it down," I said to Eric, "can you?" Eric shook his head. I felt terrible, he'd always displayed only as much power as absolutely necessary to ensure that others respected and feared him, but not enough to make him more of a threat than his age and skills already did. This new glow definitely blew most of that strategy out of the water.

"Will it make you more of a target?" I asked him, fisting my hands.

"Him?" Pam laughed incredulously.

"Enough, Pam." Eric said, walking past her to glare down at the letter on his desk. "We'll deal with it later." We'd have to play around with the power exchange and have him give me back a little to cut down on the glow now that we knew that everyone could see it.

"You do realize that everyone will know that she did that to you—right?" Eric nodded, still frowning. "I thought we were keeping Sookie's non-fairy talents on the down low."

"This was unexpected."

"They're going to want to know—"

"They will know what I tell them about her and no more." Eric growled.

"Let's do this," I said, reaching down to pick up the letter, hoping to stop their argument—I'd need some time later to work on Eric before his announcement. Luckily my strategy worked.

With a pounding heart, I slid my finger under the flap of the letter and broke the wax seal, hoping that Maeve's assessment had been correct and nothing horrible would happen.

The minute I cracked the seal, I could no longer sense any fairy magic, so I let out the breath I'd been holding and opened the thin card inside. I tried not to think about the fact that I might once again be holding the processed skin of a water sprite and I decided that I'd devote a few minutes another time to explore the fact that a tiny piece of me, hidden away in the very back of my soul, was actually hoping that if it was skin, that it had belonged to another one of those who had killed my parents.

Maybe I was more ready to be a participant in this violent world than I was ready to admit.

As I said, I'd think about that another time.

It didn't bother me that both Pam and Eric peered eagerly over my shoulders and read along with me; they had as much at stake here as I did.

_"Dearest Great Granddaughter," _it began.

_"Fifteen nights ago, I was informed that you had been imprisoned in an iron-lined cell at the vampire headquarters in New Orleans._

_"I sent my best warriors to free you and when that attempt failed, I instructed them to extract you at their first opportunity and at any cost. Unfortunately, there is unrest among my people again and some of my warriors turned against me, and so against you, since you are blood of my blood. I am greatly disturbed that you were physically injured by something that I set into motion._

_"Now that I know you are not being held against your will, I shall honor your request and will not seek you out any longer. From what Preston has told me, you are now capable of protecting yourself and that is a great relief to me._

_"I will, however, remind you of the dangers that vampires and scrios present to those of our blood and so I warn you to use more caution when selecting your companions than you have shown in the past._

_"It is my greatest hope that you will one day find the love you once had for me and seek me out yourself. So few of those with my blood remain._

_Know that I treasure you, as always, great-granddaughter,_

_Niall_

I looked up from the note to stare at Pam and Eric. The silence lasted at least five seconds before all three of us burst out laughing at the same time. If either of them heard the slight note of hysteria in my voice, they didn't mention it.

What was Niall thinking? Even if I hadn't just been warned by the more dominant side of my bloodline not to trust anyone, there was no way I was going to be seeking him out. His story was plausible but he simply had too many marks against him to give him the benefit of the doubt even if fairies couldn't lie-although I wasn't sure if that applied to the written word or only spoken. I'd have to do some research into the matter.

Eric gave me a concerned glance, but I smiled and shook my head. This wouldn't rattle me. It was true that this kind of thing would probably have worked on me not too long ago, but I'd changed a lot since I'd last seen Niall and clearly he didn't know me anymore…if he ever really had.

Eric picked up the letter and envelope, looking at it with disgust. "Do you wish to keep this?" he asked. I shook my head again; I had no sentimental feelings toward Niall anymore.

Eric took a long handled lighter from the mantle above the empty fireplace, opened the flu and set fire to the letter. We watched as it blackened, curled up and then flaked away, trying to ignore how disturbing the image was to all of us in light of the dangers around us.

"Well, lets hope that imagery wasn't prophetic," Pam said, snapping us back into the here and now.

"At least not for us," I grumbled, earning proud and fangy smiles from both Pam and Eric.

o-o-o

-Three days later—

I'm a relatively patient person. At this moment however, it would be reasonable to put extreme emphasis on the word, _relatively_. It didn't help in the slightest that I could feel Eric laughing at me through our bond as I did everything in my power not to fidget with boredom and overload from way too much unnecessary information.

The looks Eric shot me from his much more interesting and pertinent conversation with a vampire from Tennessee who was trying to get him to allow his wife to 'listen' to the humans in her Queen's retinue, told me that he was enjoying my situation way too much. His amusement at my expense even took his mind off Pam who had been ill tempered for the past two days and was forty-five minutes late this evening. Even now she was sitting next to Eric glaring daggers at the second from Tennessee.

The only excitement of my night had come when Eric had kicked out both my incredibly dull instructor for that portion of the evening and the male vampire he'd been meeting with and then pulled Pam into our private passageway to have a few 'words' with her. I'm not sure what passed between them, but when Pam returned she was still bad-tempered and within minutes of my instructor's return, I was once again bored out of my mind.

The reason for my boredom was that I was in what should be titled 'in-service purgatory.' Right now, my thick introductory manual told me that we were set to begin a segment about building security. That was finally a topic I was truly interested in and I'd actually be excited to learn about it if I hadn't already sat through four hours of dry and detailed lectures from a Were, a human and three different vampires. The last group included Palomino who was now in charge of Human Comfort, or in less politically correct terms, she was in charge of keeping the donor pool healthy and happy.

Each of my instructors covered topics specific to their responsibilities, but it was easy to say that the only one who enjoyed herself was the efficient human who filled me in on guest admittance, individual floor protocols, dress codes, dining options, supernatural traditions and behavior, proper greeting procedures and behavior expected of the breathing. Although I would have loved to have had her to talk to the first night I met Bill, there wasn't much she told me that I didn't already know or couldn't figure out on my own.

The others covered building safety procedures, needs of the living and the undead, use of donor pools in the attached Club and grievance procedures-among a list of other even more mundane topics that I simply ignored.

At first I thought that Eric must have set this up as a way of teaching me a lesson about watching what I wished for, but as the evening wore on, I determined that he was simply enjoying watching me slog down the pathway I'd created for myself.

Yes, I'd said I wanted to work my way up the hierarchy of Eric's kingdom on my own and yes, every individual who worked at his headquarters had to go through a similar training period, but this was beyond ridiculous. I could have taken an hour or two and read through the details on my own and then simply asked any questions I had in a five-minute meeting with each of the instructors. We all didn't need to be wasting so much time on this process, especially since much of it didn't apply to me, and the smug vampire king on the other side of the office knew that perfectly well.

Lev, my current instructor, cleared his throat unnecessarily, bringing to my attention the fact that I was frowning down at the table between us. I fixed my face and returned my gaze to him. He didn't deserve my ire, he'd been nothing but nice to me so far-falsely and disgustingly so since he was trying to impress Eric through me, but I really couldn't blame him for trying to do his job.

Each of my instructors had been extraordinarily thorough with educating me, not only because Eric was within earshot, but because they'd seen what had happened to Yancy and avoiding his fate was a huge motivator for everyone here. I'm not referring to what I did to Yancy, but what Eric did right after making his big announcement. I'd stupidly thought that Yancy had already received his punishment from yours truly, but Eric had other ideas that were made known when he'd pulled on his unnecessary leather gloves before wrapping the cowering vampire in thin silver chain and locking him in a coffin.

I nearly bit though my tongue to keep a straight face as I watched Eric make it clear what the punishment was for someone who hadn't even touched me and although I was upset that he hadn't warned me he was going to do this, I knew that it was within his rights to have killed Yancy instead. So I didn't fault Lev or the others for their overzealousness in educating me, but the result was that I was bored as all get out.

"I'm sorry Lev, please continue," I said with a small smile.

Lev Shalit, a young vampire—probably less than twenty vampire years old-was the Head of Building Security here in Eric's headquarters. Eric told me that Lev had been turned because he was brilliant and had the unique experience of working in the Israeli military on counterterrorism. His maker lived in New Orleans and she agreed to allow Lev to work with Eric so long as she was left alone with no duties or responsibilities to attend to as was generally required for living in the kingdom. Since Lev's skills were unparalleled, Eric readily agreed and I was extremely grateful that we had him on our side.

Lev reached into his bag on the floor and removed a third and more impressive-looking iPad than he'd previously been using. He quickly entered a long security code and pulled up a satellite map of what seemed to be the area surrounding this building.

Now, this was more interesting. I sat up a little taller and leaned in to see the screen clearly.

He zoomed in with a few swipes of his fingers, always keeping this building in the center of the screen. Once we were focused directly down on this block, he looked at me to make sure I had been watching and then brushed away that screen and pulled up what appeared to be the live video taken from an infrared camera on the roof.

Lev had been uncomfortable and relatively stilted while talking about the other topics, but now he was in his element, obviously more comfortable communicating with the aid of his technology than with people directly. The fact that we had finally reached his main area of focus was surely helping too and I felt as bad for the guy that he'd had to cover all those topics that clearly weren't interesting to him either. I wondered if he'd done something to piss Eric off to have earned the responsibility of being my instructor for the evening or if he'd simply drawn the short straw.

"I'm sure you know that although this property takes up a full block, the building itself only covers about two thirds of the ground space and the rest is devoted to security and blast protection." As he said this, he zoomed in on the grounds around the building and pointed out discrete fences, artistic concrete barriers and security huts. I nodded to show that I was following him.

"The benefit to the way the plot is designed is that we only have to protect against bombs in packages, suicide bombers, grenades and the random idiot who thinks he can survive after taking a few shots at the building from the perimeter."

"Only?" I asked sarcastically.

He shrugged and gave me a glance that told me he thought that anyone who didn't spend most of their day thinking about security measures was a complacent fool.

"The biggest risk would come from car bombs, but that's not a problem since the roads around the building have been closed since the now finally dead Queen Sophie-Anne took up residence here after the Great Revelation.

"On the street, before visitors step foot on the property, their features are analyzed by a facial recognition program. The recognition program compares the features of the individual to their verified identification to ensure a match. The data is also run through a vampire subset of an Israeli based security company that consolidates profiles of known and suspected anti-supe activists throughout the world."

I raised my eyebrows at him. When in the world had all these changes taken place? The whole of the Amun clan had been caught off guard by a bunch of of suitcase and coffin bombs placed right under their noses. And I mean that literally. This was a complete about-face from the lax security that had existed then.

He read my expression correctly, "We've stopped waiting to be attacked and have taken a more active approach to protecting ourselves. We've installed this security system at all highly visible targets here and in Oklahoma and are even sharing it with some of the shifter populations that are friendly to us." He said the last bit with a small grimace.

"If a match is found in the facial recognition software," he continued, "the compound is put on lockdown until the situation is handled. You've been briefed on what a lockdown entails."

By the way he said that, I was sure I wouldn't want to be the person who triggered such a response. The details he'd given me on lockdowns were for inside the building; I could only imagine the response outside. Being 'handled' by a vampire usually ended up as one of two things-incredibly pleasurable or the end of the line.

"If the visitor passes that initial level of security, they walk through one of the two unmanned outer guard houses for full body and trace scans that look for particles of explosives and biological agents. These procedures are explained in detail when the appointment is made. The next step, however, is not disclosed to the visitor, but you have been cleared to be given the knowledge that everyone is also evaluated by the 'Suspect Detection System,' which assesses actions and physiological reactions that only a terrorist would exhibit. We have one program for humans and shifters and one for vampires and both are very adept at identifying potential suspects with a minimum of staff support while at the same time, ruling out errors from the guards."

Pam looked over at me, still irritable, and discretely tapped her head as she swept her hair behind her ear—smooth. I focused on her thoughts, _"Miriam's here with Immanuel. Be ready to leave in two minutes. Now get back out of my head."_

I closed my connection to her, wondering if it was Miriam's arrival that had upset her so much. I didn't have much time to wonder because Lev was staring at me and I realized that he was waiting for a reaction to something he'd said.

"Wow, that's just…wow." I smiled and nodded at Lev in response to Pam and had to try hard not to stick my tongue out when I sensed Eric's humor through the bond, he knew exactly what was going on over here.

Lev smirked, satisfied that he'd impressed me and continued talking. I gave him most of my attention; this was the only interesting part of my dull evening. Why couldn't Pam have interrupted the detailed lecture I'd received about the phone chain that was to be set in action during emergencies?

"Once the visitor exits the guard house, they have been approved for entry and are met by a vampire or shifter guard and are led into the building. They are closely observed at all times and are never left alone except when in the bathroom. Of course those rooms have sound detection systems that identify actions that even hint at inappropriate behavior."

"Nice," I said sarcastically, making a note never to use the public bathrooms here. Although all this sounded quite invasive, I understood the need for the security and was relieved that Eric had entered the modern era with technology.

Pam left the table she'd been working at with Eric and moved to his desk where she logged onto his computer. When I refocused on Lev, I realized that he had been looking at me for a few seconds without talking.

"You, however never entered through security, did you?" he said and his voice carried curiosity rather than a threat.

"I brought her in," Eric said, quickly glancing at us before returning his attention to the male Were who had replaced the disappointed female vampire in the middle of my security lesson.

"Yes, teleporting…the wards are supposed to keep most fairies out but wards are tricky…that's something else to look into. But I wonder…" He continued muttering to himself while he jotted a few notes down into the memo section of the iPad.

"I've taken care of it, Lev." Eric said with finality.

Lev wasn't that quick on the uptake or perhaps he just put the building's security ahead of his own because he plowed straight ahead.

"But the wards are fully dependent upon—" he didn't finish his statement because Eric turned his full attention to him, spearing him with a cold glare.

"If you feel the need to discuss the wards with me, you will make an appointment to do so after you gather all the information you need from Maeve."

Lev nodded, but he didn't appear nearly as worried to be chastised by his King as I would have anticipated. After a moment of delving into Lev's thoughts, I could tell that it was simply because he and Eric had developed a relationship in which Lev was expected and required to ask uncomfortable questions. He'd had to push others around him to flex in order to implement the kind of security changes he'd done so far and so Eric gave him a little more leniency than he might give others.

It seemed that Eric only snapped at him because Lev was discussing something that might give me cause to worry. He shouldn't have bothered, I knew all magic was at risk of being broken by even stronger magic and we were never completely safe, but that fact wouldn't keep me from being able to relax unless we were under a direct attack.

Lev was still thinking about the wards, so I intervened. "This is what you do for visitors, but what about staff?" I asked, calmly trying to refocus his thoughts. "Not only do you have Eric's staff but the humans occupying the office space on the lower floors. In Rhodes, it was the staff rather than random visitors who planted the bombs."

Lev smiled at me as he deftly maneuvered through screens on his iPad. Suddenly his fingers stilled and his eyes flicked to Pam who was now standing at my shoulder.

"Sorry to break this up," she said, sounding anything but sorry, "but Sookie is needed. You can finish this another time." Lev quickly gathered up his belongings and hurried out the door after quickly bowing to Eric.

"Thank you," I mouthed, just in case he could still hear us.

"Come. Immanuel is hungry," she snapped as she turned on her heels and left through the main office door without a backwards glance. Boy, was I glad I wasn't the one she was so upset with; I rarely saw anything break her control.

I followed quickly behind her but was momentarily waylaid when Eric reached for my hand as I passed by him. I stopped, giving him a pleasant and attentive smile, well aware of our audience, but I was pleased down to my toes when he placed a lingering kiss on my knuckles. I squeezed his hand, smiled down at him and nodded, happy that he was comfortable with that much PDA in front of the Were.

Pam was halfway down the hallway when I exited the office a few seconds after her so I had to rush past Will who had entered the room as she left and Sheila who was standing guard outside the office in order to catch up with her. I knew better than to ask what was bothering her so I just shot her a concerned glance. She frowned at me and sped up, her high heels cracking onto the floor with unnecessary force with each step.

We walked down the north and east hallways before stopping at a door I'd never entered before. She leaned toward me and if I hadn't known her so well, I would have been extremely intimidated by the intensity of her glare.

"You are no longer my favorite human, Sookie," she said harshly, but since I wasn't human anymore and I knew I hadn't done anything wrong recently, I didn't take offense to her statement. "You are about to meet my new favorite human, so be nice."

I pouted at her insinuation—this I did find offensive. "I'm always nice," I said. Pam scowled at me. Well, I'm almost always nice. "I'll be on my best behavior," I promised, intrigued now to find out who Pam was defending so vehemently.

Pam scowled at me again and then entered a code in the keypad next to the door. The door opened with a swish and I gasped in delight at the sight before me.

"Ah, there you are. Good evening, Mrs. Northman, Pamela," came a rich, slightly accented female voice from within the warm space. I decided to let her confusion about my last name go and smiled widely as I looked around.

The room we had just entered was longer than it was wide and consisted of two sitting areas separated by a large kitchen. By the door, the seating was arranged around an oversized table with chairs that looked well suited to support the substantial frame of the average Were.

The furniture at the far end of the room was more casual, with white bamboo framing and fluffy light green cushions. Again the seating here was amply sized and the lighting around the couches gave the impression that it was a sunroom or warm breakfast nook despite the lack of natural light. Immanuel and Miriam sat on the right side of the nook and both nodded back when I gave them a small wave.

I didn't look at them for long because my gaze was drawn back to the huge kitchen between the two spaces and the woman standing at the counter working with a professional-looking pasta maker.

"Sookie, this is Gia or Mrs. Georgia Binasco, the chef who has provided your sustenance since you arrived."

"It's such a pleasure to meet you, Gia. I've really been enjoying your food." I said excitedly, clasping my hands together to keep myself from flitting around the kitchen.

Gia appeared to be in her mid sixties, but she looked younger when she smiled in response to my compliment. She had her graying brown hair pulled up into a bun at the nape of her neck and was wearing a dark pink and blue apron over gray slacks and a black three-quarter length sleeved shirt. On her feet, she wore comfortable looking dark gray slippers that could almost pass for shoes. I just loved that she was wearing slippers; it made me feel like I was in her home.

The kitchen was beautiful and it blended perfectly with the far sitting area. Gran wouldn't have needed this much space, but if she had been in charge of feeding larger groups of people on a regular basis, she would have absolutely loved this design.

On the left side of the room, closest to the door was a deep sink and a dishwasher. Further along the wall toward the kitchen space was a refrigerator, double oven range and then another, larger double sink and dishwasher. Each appliance was spaced perfectly with charcoal colored marble counter tops. To the right, was a wall of shelves and cabinets surrounding a second and much larger refrigerator and separate freezer.

Down the center of the room ran a wide island with stools on the right side and white marble countertops that were flecked with charcoal-colored bits to match the counter on the left. The combination of the two colors of marble added depth to the room without darkening it in the slightest.

My fingers continued to itch and I fought the desire to start cooking with Gia simply for the normalcy of the action and my stomach rumbled at the sight of the long strips of dough being pressed out of the pasta maker. I'd never even thought seriously about making my own pasta, but it explained why her food was so amazing. I watched as Gia's skilled hands made quick work out of something that would take me weeks of practice to perfect.

She glanced back up at me with a pleasant smile that I couldn't help but return as she folded the dough over itself and fed it through the machine again.

"I really am a huge fan of your food so I'm sorry it's taken me some time to get here personally," I said sincerely.

She laughed richly. "No one here takes much time to eat, but when they do, they do a good job of it."

I had to smile in return, thinking about how much food the Weres must eat. "I can only imagine," I said as I neared the island. "How many people do you feed each day?" I asked.

"Oh, it varies from day to day. Most of the employees eat downstairs, but anyone who eats food and works on this floor or above, eats here. Some days, only four or five stop by and on others I can get up to twenty-five. It depends on what's going on and who's around."

"Do you have help? What hours do you keep?" I asked. Pam rolled her eyes at me and walked through the kitchen to sit next to Miriam with whom she began a heated exchange of whispers. Gia glanced up at them with a worried expression and then returned to her work and our conversation.

"I'm usually here noon to midnight, but my schedule is flexible. I prep each day to feed everyone and freeze anything that's not eaten on the day it's cooked. Anyone who has approval to eat here can let themselves in using the keypad Eric put on the door. If I'm not here, you can heat up whatever you want from this refrigerator or freezer," she said gesturing to the right side of the room, "it's all labeled. I send leftovers home with whoever wants them after they've been in the freezer for a week, so if you need some extra food, just let me know."

"Thank you, I'm sure I'll need to do that once in a while, we're so busy," I said with a grateful smile. It was the truth. The only place I actually had time to sit and relax while I ate was when I was in Hana eating picnic lunches packed by Gia. I think that Sheila had even started to enjoy our time there and although she never truly relaxed, she was certainly less tense than when she was here.

"Most everyone who comes by is eating on the run," she gestured this time to the long table by the door, "but sometimes, they like to sit and get away from all the business talk. That's one of the rules in here, no shoptalk—at least not while I'm here. I don't want to know anything I shouldn't and I like to keep this space as a bit of a safe zone for minds and souls to relax amidst the drama outside these doors."

Her eyes and body language told me she knew personally about the drama of which she was speaking and it tugged at my heart.

"Of course," I said, putting my hand on the counter top closer to her and then I glanced at my not-so-peaceful dinner companions who were now arguing in slightly-raised voices.

"You should go to them, I'll bring some food over for you and Immanuel in just a few minutes."

I nodded and sat down in a deep chair between Pam and Immanuel.

"Sookie, you know Miriam and Immanuel don't you?" Pam snapped. "I believe they're the reason my Maker was miserable for the last sixteen years."

My mouth fell open and I looked at her incredulously, "What the hell, Pam?" I responded vehemently.

"No, it's true." Miriam rebutted, "We helped you get away when you needed to go and you're back now that it's the right time for you. It's good to see you under better circumstances then the last time we met, although it seems as though nothing's changed for me since I'm still a prisoner," Miriam said, looking directly at Pam rather than me.

"Um…" I wasn't sure what to say. The only time I'd met Miriam, she's been abducted by Victor, so why was she equating this moment to that awful time? I did what I often did when socially uncomfortable and fell back on my southern manners. "It's so nice to see you well, Miriam. I'd worried about you all these years," I said with a tense smile. I'd actually figured she had died—really died, and had been so happy to hear that Pam had been able to save her in time.

"Yes, you are being ungrateful, Miriam-ungrateful and shortsighted. It has only been sixteen years. Don't get ahead of yourself." Pam said sternly to her.

I frowned, totally confused and glanced at Immanuel. He just shrugged and looked me over with inappropriately discerning eyes.

I tried to ignore him and instead, sat in silence for a few minutes while I enjoyed the comfortable room despite the overwhelming tension. There was something about the space that not only made it look like a real sunroom but feel like one too. I looked around to see if I could identify the source of the warmth I felt coming from all around me, but nothing stood out as a sun lamp or heater.

"The floors, walls and ceiling are heated," Gia said, having noticed my upturned palms and confused expression. She was looking up above me and so missed when my eyes widened. I knew of another room in this building with heated walls. Thankfully, this room was much more pleasant. "I had it designed to remind me of how it felt to be out on my patio in the late morning sun. It makes me feel like I'm home," she said wistfully.

Gia must use this space as a type of therapy for the staff, probably including herself, who so rarely felt the warmth of the sun anymore. I'd only been here a few days but I already knew that I was one of the lucky ones since I got to go to Hana at least three times a week for a few hours or more of sun. Many of the Weres and humans Eric employed had become essentially nocturnal and although they would never complain about it in this building, they missed the sun.

"It's wonderful," I said as I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes. Unfortunately, my peace only lasted a few moments before it was disturbed by Immanuel's voice.

"Who does your hair now?" he asked without preamble and I knew without opening my eyes that he was speaking to me. He'd never been one for small talk.

Once again, I wasn't sure what to say. "Um, no one," I responded cryptically.

"I'll do it. It's much better than the last time I saw you." He said with the same disdainful tone of voice he'd used that night.

"Well, I'd certainly hope so since you were cutting off the hair I'd had burned in a fire," I returned sharply. I'd never appreciated backhanded compliments. "And since that was my last haircut, I don't think I'm in need of your services right now, but thanks."

I quickly glanced at Pam, realizing that I'd just been a little rude, but she was still involved in her argument with Miriam. Obviously, Immanuel wasn't her favorite human or I'm sure I'd have heard about it.

Immanuel surprised me when he gave me a little smile; clearly he liked sharp-tongued women. I guess he'd have to if he could tolerate Pam. "You haven't changed much," he said and then sat back in his chair and crossed his arms and wiped the smile from his face. "The only hair I actually want to work on belongs to you freaky supes," he said and luckily I caught his conspiratorial wink, or he'd have been in trouble. "All you bitches are putting me out of work."

I laughed and Pam and Miriam both stopped whatever they were fighting about to give him identical superior-than-thou looks. Immanuel was smarter than he seemed at first. Any other type of attempt at distraction would have been met with anger from these two furious women, but an insult directed at all of us drove them together seamlessly.

"Here you are," Gia said as she set two plates down on the low table in front of us. I almost groaned with pleasure…homemade spinach ravioli swimming in a light pink sauce. Even Immanuel smiled widely and then totally shocked me when he partially stood up and gave Gia a loud kiss on her cheek.

"Oh!" She giggled, "Save room for dessert. I've made carrot cake for you, Immanuel." He pretended to get up to kiss her again, but she backed away and returned with a tray holding two glasses of water and one filled with blood for Pam. "Mariam, be a dear and help me get one more glass from the high cabinet, please," she said sweetly.

Miriam stood up quickly but neither of them went to the cabinets, instead, they sat down facing away from us at the table at the other end of the room where Gia had set a glass of blood and a cup of tea.

I glanced at Pam and saw that she had relaxed for the first time all night. It was a relief to see, so I didn't comment, but settled in to enjoy my heavenly food. I was about halfway done with my meal when Pam started talking.

"She wants to leave me," she said sadly.

What? "Oh no, Pam. I'm so sorry." I said, putting down my fork and giving her my full attention.

She gave me a scornful look, "It's not because she doesn't want to be with me anymore, but she's been offered a job as head costume designer for the first ever movie production of the Catcher in the Rye. It's a challenge she's always wanted and it really is an opportunity she can't turn down seeing as though it's going to be directed by Harvey Weinstein, but I can't let her go yet. She's not ready and I can't leave Eric right now."

Uh-oh, this was my fault. She felt she had to stay to help Eric because of me. I added so much more instability to his life; he needed someone he could trust like her right now.

"Pam, I really am sorry."

She glared at me, "The whole world doesn't revolve around you, Sookie. This isn't your fault. I like being here and doing what I do. I'm the second most powerful vampire in the kingdom and I have much more autonomy with Eric than any other monarch would ever give me. This is an opportunity I can't turn down either."

"I could…" could that work? Maybe. "I could take her there each night if you'd like," I offered in a quiet voice so Miriam wouldn't hear me.

"No. She needs to be close to me," she said with finality.

"Force her to stay." Immanuel said as he scooped the last ravioli off his plate, "Just get her to stop whining." Wow, there's brotherly love for you.

"I have commanded her to stay, but I can't make her happy about it." Pam said sadly, and for the first time, she sounded like a real parent. "She can really be a raving bitch when she wants to be." Well, maybe not exactly like most parents that I knew.

"Gia will talk her down," Immanuel said with a jerk of his chin at the two women sitting at the other end of the room.

"I hope so," Pam said, gazing longingly over her shoulder at her child and lover. I listened in to their thoughts for a few moments and saw that they were right. Gia was helping Miriam set her priorities and look at the situation from a less emotional angle.

"She's good and very kind," I mumbled mostly to myself, but Pam raised an eyebrow in agreement.

"Remember the advisor I told you about whose whole family except for one member was killed by the Fellowship of the Sun?" I tensed and then nodded. "That was Gia's eldest daughter, Angela."

That certainly explained the sadness I'd seen in her eyes.

"Angela was the human representative for Eric's monarchy and so she and her family took the brunt of the hatred from those pathetic creatures. It was a great loss to Gia and to the kingdom. Angela was unique, we never figured out exactly what talent she had, but she could get most semi-rational humans to agree with her on just about anything once she had a conversation with them. Gia has a similar talent, but she seems to affect all supes.

"Even Eric spent time talking with Gia a number of years ago. It turns out that they'd had a lot in common at the time," she said with a small snarl.

Poor Gia. I listened in to her more closely but I couldn't pin point anything specific that would tell us what her talent was. She wasn't a telepath but something about the way she thought reminded me of Macey. Maybe she was an empath, but it would be a pretty big coincidence, meeting another empath. Wouldn't it?

Perhaps she was simply perceptive. Then again, the more I learned about the supernatural world, the more I thought that maybe everyone had at least a tiny drop of magical blood in them. Perhaps it's just dependent on whether or not individuals chose to pay attention to it that made the difference.

Pam's head snapped up and before I could even blink, she was at the other end of the room with Miriam embraced tightly in her arms. Through the bond, I felt Eric relax. That poor guy, his emotions must be like Grand Central Station with all of us rattling around in him.

Gia came to join us, leaving Pam and Miriam at the other end of the room.

"Thanks," muttered Immanuel, "again."

Gia simply smiled and took a sip of her tea. "You know I hate it when they fight."

"Who doesn't? At least this one only lasted a few days. Remember the one they had a few years ago?" Gia nodded as Immanuel filled me in. "Eric finally had enough of it and staged an intervention with them in one of his prison cells so they couldn't run away." Immanuel laughed at the memory.

Gia looked at me, "It took two full nights to get them talking again. They're both so hardheaded but they love one another enough to get through the tough times."

"Let's hope they figure this out quickly, they both need to be in top form for the Halloween Gala next week. I've been fully booked for eleven months and Miriam has at least ten costumes she has to crank out in the next few days—including Eric's." Immanuel actually looked concerned for the first time all night.

"She delivered mine tonight." Gia blushed slightly and stirred her tea slowly.

And as far as I'd heard, vampires, Weres and other supes looked forward to Eric's Halloween gala all year as the premiere place and time to show off when not at a political event. I doubted that vampires would ever really be able to leave politics behind, but at least it wasn't supposed to be the main focus of the event.

Eric had already warned me that he'd only be comfortable with me going this year if I dressed as a Britlingen. Although I was a little disappointed, I understood his concern and agreed so long as Miriam made a male Britlingen costume for him. He wouldn't have the authentic armor, but Miriam had come up with a few good ways to replicate the look. I couldn't wait to see him encased in that skin-tight armor.

"What will you be wearing?" I asked Gia, knowing full well that most people never divulged their costume.

Gia shook her head. "No peeking."

"Each year Gia dresses as a famous Italian woman from history." Immanuel explained. "You should have seen her last year. She went as Lucretia Borgia, from the late 1400s." They both laughed and Gia blushed even more. I didn't get it and gave them both a perplexed look.

"Lucretia Borgia was famous not only for her patronage of the arts but also for being accused of poisoning a great number of people." Gia explained while grinning into her tea.

"It was a perfect persona for her to assume since so many of the people in attendance depended on her for their meals at work. She even had Maeve put a spell on the food and blood she had on her tray that caused anyone who ate some to have green teeth for fifteen minutes. It was hysterical."

"Only because you ate yours before anyone else arrived." Gia teased kindly.

I smiled as I watched my laughing companions and then I focused further down the room to where Pam was still consoling her disappointed child. It had only been three days, but I was already finding that there was much more running beneath the surface of this busy kingdom then met the eye, and I had the gift of being right in the middle of it all. Pam and Miriam would never allow outsiders to see them weakened like this—only family was allowed.

Family.

I sent Eric my love through our bond and my heart expanded a little as I realized that I wasn't just Eric's wife and bonded, but a part of this small family that spanned multiple generations (very long ones) and across a variety of races both human and supernatural.

No matter how unusual we were (and we really should be incompatible), _this—_the laughter and the tears, the drama and the worries, adapting when life throws you a curveball and even the monotony of some of our tasks_-_was normal. _This_ was life. _This_ was _our_ normal and I looked forward to being a part of all of it.

Although it seemed until tonight that I was always the source of the troubles around us, Pam was right, the world didn't revolve around me, but we did revolve around one another and when one segment of our unit was weakened, the other parts would come together to support and heal the rift. None of us was an island.

We were family.

A/N: A quiet chapter after a few busy ones.


	49. Chapter 49

A/N: Thanks everyone. Sorry I've been slacking on my review responses, I really appreciate your support! This chapter is a final breather for Eric and Sookie before things pick up again.

Let me issue a warning to remind you that this story has more violence in it. If you've made it this far, you should do just fine with what I have planned for the rest of the story. Believe it or not, after this chapter, we're on the homestretch.

Chapter 49 Mexican Hat

EPOV

Three months later

A quick glance at Pam was all it took to let her know that I had finished dealing with this squabbling and disastrous duo Micah had sent down to me from Area Two when his best attempts at mediation had failed. He was getting better at his duties as sheriff but once in a while, I still received some of his tougher cases.

This wasn't his fault, these two were impossible and if I had been stupid enough to give them the gift of immortality, I would have taken it away as soon as they opened their annoying mouths the first time. Really, who in their right mind thought that squabbling siblings would get better once they were vampires? The fact that they were once upon a time pro wrestling 'stars,' whatever the fuck that meant, just made their existence more annoying to me. All I knew was that they made the Berts look like geniuses.

Pam escorted them out under the pretense of going to the Club for a drink when she was really taking them to my holding cell until their maker could arrive to defend herself for her and their actions. I held her directly responsible for the destruction the siblings had wrought on the L'auberge Casino Resort during their most recent fight and for wasting my valuable time.

I would rather have sent them to the dungeons for a crash course in self-control, but I'd leave that up to their maker. One thing I was sure of was that they would not leave here without punishment, even if I had to teach her how to control her children myself. I'd also have Pam check to see who her sheriff had been when she made these clowns. If it was one of mine, I'd be having a few words with him or her no doubt.

I sighed unnecessarily and looked at the clock. One more meeting until I had a substantial break and I could spend some time with my wife. Simply the thought of her made the night easier to tolerate. She'd integrated herself into my retinue so well in the past three months that an outsider might think she'd been here all along. She was finding her balance here with her need to be with others while embracing her status as an incredibly powerful supernatural being.

In those three months, my contingent had been attacked in some way five separate times, three of which both Sookie and I had been present for. One of the times, we'd simply teleported away, but the other two we'd had to fight our way out.

She made friends and admirers among my vampires those nights when she joined us in defending not only our close circle but anyone with us by using her unique skills of teleportation, shape shifting, glamouring from a distance and her proficiency with weapons, especially throwing stars. I had no doubt as to where she learned that skill having witnessed the Britlingens behead the young vampire in Rhodes, but still, it was really fun to watch.

Each time she defended herself; she suffered less and less with her regrets and the grief that is so natural for most humans to feel when they kill any living being. My love was coming out of her shell and I had a front row view to her transformation.

I laughed to myself as I remembered the first time she gave a command that vampires followed.

'Get out,' she'd hissed, her eyes flashing with anger and lust as she kicked the group of guards from the training room moments after teleporting me there.

Sookie had shown her true colors after repeatedly ensuring me that she could handle watching me drink from a human down at the Club. Her violent outburst and the accompanying small fire that occurred as a result ensured that she would be the only living being I would drink from unless it was a dire situation.

It was a glorious thing to watch her loose control from pure jealousy before I had even pierced the male donor's neck. I have replayed that image in my mind time and again over the last few months. I even had the six-foot area of destroyed flooring removed from the Club, covered with Plexiglas and installed under my desk so I could see it whenever I needed to be reminded of just how possessive my wife was of me.

In her jealous rage, she'd taken me to the training room with the intent of baiting me to into biting her deep enough that I could get a quick and easy meal without having to draw the blood out. It was fun letting her try to work me up but it's not even remotely possible for me to cause her pain to satisfy myself and a bite that deep would indeed be painful.

I understood that she was upset that my resistance to silver and sunlight was fading with every day that I didn't take enough of her blood, but nothing was worth hurting her every time we made love.

In the end, I'd agreed to bite a little deeper so long as it didn't cause her any pain and I also agreed to feed from her more frequently. The fact that she healed so quickly from the bite and the blood loss made that an easy answer and since we both loved the feeling of my fangs sliding through her skin, it was a good one. But what drove me completely insane was when she took matters into her own hands by using a transformed claw or, fuck I was already hard at the thought, her fangs to tear into her own skin in moments of pure ecstasy.

The fact that I could make this woman whose nature was to be perky and sweet most of the time to such depths of passion made me want to fuck her in front of every monarch in America to show them how much better I was than them in every way possible. Of course I would never do that even if Sookie wanted it since it would paint an even bigger target on our backs than we already had, but the thought crossed my mind more and more these days. There's nothing wrong with fantasizing once in a while.

All this thinking about fucking her wasn't making it any easier to wait to see her in an hour. Her emotions were running at a higher level than I was accustomed to and so I'd been feeling her all night. She was anticipating something she was looking forward to, but right now it was irritation that was dominating her mood.

I pulled out my phone, glanced at her schedule and groaned. Of course she was with Robert. That explained her irritation. Robert was one of the oldest vampires I had in my retinue who wasn't a sheriff. He'd been instrumental in planning the great revelation and I'd brought him in to smooth things over with the human government since I absolutely abhorred anything to do with human politics. I'd rather deal with ten screeching female Weres than have one conversation with the Governor.

I hadn't been able to completely avoid interacting with human heads of state over the years, but Robert offered me a wide berth and handled everything but the simple meet and greet they all invariably requested.

Sookie generally handled relations with figure heads better than I did, but she had a passionate dislike for the current governor. Honestly, he was better than some from the past, but she'd never had to deal with human politicians before. In Hana, everyone in politics was a neighbor and was held personally accountable for every decision they made so they generally did what the people wanted. Here, things weren't so black and white.

A text came through on my phone informing me that my next appointment had just cleared outside security and was on her way into the building. I had a few minutes, so I tapped into the security camera we all had in our offices to hear what was going on next door. It took me less than one second to realize that Sookie was on a roll. Her vehement words came though loud and clear on my phone.

"-mind involving him one bit if he'd put any effort into raising money or if he'd done one single thing to help further the mission of the foundation, but he's been totally useless despite our many efforts to engage him."

Robert kept a calm and level voice. "He feels that he offered his support during his most recent public statement in which he said that he supported equality for all."

Sookie rolled her eyes dramatically and waved her hands in the air with exasperation. I loved watching her; she was so dynamic, especially when face to face with an older vampire like Robert. "Gimmie a break, Robert. Of course he said that. He. Had. To. It's the law now."

"He feels it is enough."

"How about the tiny problem that he indirectly empathized with the Fellowship during his election bid? How do you feel about that, Robert?"

"How I feel about it is of no consequence. I am only telling you what he believes he is entitled to."

Sookie sighed and swept an errant hair back from her face. "What exactly does he want?"

Robert pushed a piece of paper across the table to her and I was pleased to see that he made sure to keep his fingers away from Sookie's.

"He wants three different publicity opportunities with Ça Suffit, two of them with either you or Eric in attendance."

"Ha! Right. Well you can tell him that he's going to have to actually encourage people to stop the violence of humans on vampires and the two-natured if he wants that much face time. That's what the foundation is all about after all. Ça Suffit doesn't exist for his publicity stunts."

Robert simply looked at Sookie and she audibly groaned.

"I don't know how you put up with his crap night after night," she said, giving Robert a small smile.

"It is my duty to my king," he answered, but I knew he liked it. I'd taken personal preference into account when I assigned jobs. Unhappy vampires were dangerous vampires.

"You can offer him one publicity opportunity for free, but any more will have to come with public statements supporting either the foundation or anti-violence against supes."

"And who shall I tell him will be present?"

"I'll go on the 14th, I was going to be there anyway."

Robert nodded and I heard Sookie mumble something about "more faces than a town hall clock," when the light above my door illuminated, informing me that I had two minutes until I had to shut off my entertainment for this part of the evening.

Sookie usually kept her cool when in meetings, but she was passionate about Ça Suffit_. _She'd really found her niche here once she sunk her teeth into the foundation Sam Merlotte and his wife had started with the money Sookie left for him in her will. Ça Suffit_, _or That's Enough_, _had grown over the years, more than I originally thought possible.

Honestly, I figured that given the foundation's underlying mission, they would have been bombed out sooner than later, but that hadn't happened yet. And now they had Sookie on their side from the moment she eagerly accepted the post of President of Philanthropy and as liaison between myself and Ça Suffit. The foundation needed all the hands they could get, especially ones so devoted as Sookie since it had become a very successful venture in smoothing out relations between Louisiana's college-bound supes and the human population.

Ça Suffit offered financial aid to high school graduates, deliberately seeking out the kids whose parents who were part of the Fellowship or who had caused problems for Louisiana's supernatural community in the past. It's in my nature to say 'fuck them' or solve the problem through force but the Merlotte's had another plan.

Sam and Jocelin's goal was to break down the barrier of learned fear and hate by having the kids pay back the foundation with summer internships and at least a year of work devoted to Ça Suffit after graduation. Sam's idea of 'kill them with kindness', and Jocelin's strategy of putting opposites together to work toward a common goal had been very successful over time. In fact, it was so successful that I had employed some of the same strategies in this very building. Of course neither of us initially advertised our ultimate goal so as not to scare off the Fellowship families, highlighting the general anti-violence component of our mission instead. Right now, the first two floors of this building housed individuals who originally supported Fellowship views, but according to Sookie, those opinions were changing as they were exposed with the carefully orchestrated 'softer side' of the supernatural world. Let's just hope they never looked behind the pretty veneer that was being painted for them. No human needed to know what went on behind our closed doors just like we didn't need to know what went on behind theirs.

I'd also turned over Victor's old Vampire's Kiss to the Merlottes and allowed them to run it as a major fundraising source for the foundation. In return, they expanded the potential recipients of the financial aid to include young vampires and their human family members who needed money attend college. Educated people were much less likely to believe the rhetoric the Fellowship was trying to sell, so it was a win-win situation for my kingdom.

This type of work was right up Sookie's alley, but it put her in a more public role than I had wanted for her. We hadn't been able to avoid publicity totally, I was too popular with the humans and I had to let my face be seen a few times a year or people started to talk. The announcement at the Halloween gala of our marriage and the fact that the most eligible bachelor vampire in New Orleans was now off the market was apparently big news.

We'd agreed to a few private photo shoots with magazines and did some short interviews, always with the point being to push our agenda, but Sookie was still in the public eye now due to the work she did with the foundation.

Even though we'd had fewer attempts on my life since she returned, this was mostly due to the fact that we teleported most places. Our team was still being targeted every now and then when we went to public events (always in a warded building) and I disliked her being in the line of fire even though she'd proven herself time and again.

Just before I cut transmission of the video, Sookie leaned forward across the table toward Robert. Both of her hands were on flat on the surface and she seemed to be reaching out to him. I straightened in my seat and noticed that her guard, Ming, was on alert too.

"Robert…how's Yancy?" she asked, looking as though Yancy's weakened state was somehow her fault. I sat back, relaxing in my chair once again. Yancy was at home recovering from his three months inside a silver coffin for his attempted attack on Sookie. I'd let him and his tattered and bloodied clothes attest to Sookie's ability to defend herself and then I made it very clear what I would do to anyone who threatened my wife. It was for her benefit only that I didn't give him his final death. She would have blamed herself and really, it was unnecessary, he'd already learned his lesson.

Robert paused for a few moments, carefully formulating a response.

"He remains grateful for your careful handling of the situation. His maker is giving him blood. He will recover and return to the king's service quickly."

I laughed under my breath. This is why Robert was my top choice for dealing with human leaders, he knew how to carefully craft his words and since Yancy was his nest mate and protégé he had to be very careful.

I'd actually made an extra effort with Yancy and had contacted his maker myself, informing him of the exact time that his child would be released so he could give him blood right away. I'd also allowed them to stay on the premises for the first three nights after he was freed. This would ensure that Yancy's suffering was minimal since the worst part of being weakened by silver and starvation was the initial recovery period. When I explained this to Sookie, she said it sounded similar to how it didn't hurt much to cut blood off from a finger for a while with a tight rubber band but taking it off and allowing the blood back in was extremely painful. I never did that as a human, but I can tell you that the reintroduction of blood to a shriveled body hurts like hell and only a maker's blood eases that pain.

In her office, Sookie nodded and she and Robert stood up. That was my cue to disconnect from the video stream. My door clicked, announcing the arrival of my next appointment and I sensed Sookie and her guards moving down the hallway away from our offices just as my next appointment entered.

-o-

Fifty minutes later, I was on my way through the tunnels to our quarters. Sookie was there and her emotions had continued to escalate ever since she left her office. She wasn't horny as she often was but her emotional palate was ripe with anticipation and excitement. My curiosity grew by the second especially when she sensed that I was on my way and pushed her emotions at me through the bond. She was calling me to her.

Four seconds later, I slipped through the still opening door of my personal office and found her in the sitting room. I stopped inches from her and the speed of my arrival caused her long flowing locks to flutter.

She was dressed in a simple black long sleeved top, a knee length multi-hued skirt and a pair of flats I knew had good treads on the bottom. She looked delicious and fresh and the angle I had from above her gave me a mouthwatering view of her ample chest. My hands were on her without any conscious thought. She was mine for the next hour and I planned to make the most of it. I ran my fingers across her upturned cheeks, her arched neck and back. My face was buried in her sweet-smelling hair at the curve of her neck and I wrapped my hands under her butt to lift her up to my height when my hands encountered something that made me come to an immediate stop.

Sookie was wearing weapons under her clothing. She had two daggers on her right thigh, one on her left and under her shirt, she had a holster that held her cell phone and a squirt gun that I was sure was filled with lemon juice. My curiosity morphed quickly to suspicion and concern. Sookie only wore these particular weapons when going to an unwarded or potentially dangerous location.

"Please don't ask." she said quickly, sensing my disquiet. "I want to surprise you."

She wanted to surprise me? That meant that wherever she was planning on going, she was taking me with her. Some of my tension dissipated.

"The rest of your night is free. I had Pam cancel your appointments. Spend it with me?" she asked, holding out her hand for me.

I backed up a few steps, smiling wickedly. It was a rare thing that I was completely surprised by something and although I usually avoided being out of control, I knew we were a force to be reckoned with when we were together.

As quickly as I could, I armed myself and returned to her side. She held out her hand once again to me, a gesture that told me volumes about her plans and before I took her hand in mine, I strapped extra daggers onto each of my calves.

She was taking us far away from here and our destination wasn't Hana. I knew this because in the last few months we'd learned that so long as I had a steady infusion of her blood, she no longer needed to touch me to teleport together close by. Our blood tie was enough to keep us together if she wanted it. In fact, we could be as far apart as twenty feet, which had already helped in emergency situations. To go such a distance as Hana however, we still needed to touch, and her action told me that we were going somewhere relatively far away but her iron weapons assured me that our destination was not Hana.

We arrived a split-second after our skin touched, in a dark hallway that didn't give me any clues as to our whereabouts. We could be anywhere. She smiled next to me, clearly enjoying keeping me in the dark. I let go of her hand and surveyed our environment. The small hallway had two closed doors, one to our left and one directly in front of us. I couldn't hear anyone else in the house or any neighbors or traffic nearby, but I did smell three familiar scents lingering from last night or the night before.

"Will and James have been here recently," I said quietly, pleased that she had involved them in this plan of hers. But the fact that she'd felt it risky enough to get their approval meant that this was going to be even more interesting than I had originally thought.

"What do you have up your sleeve, Wife?" I asked, humor and curiosity lightening my voice. Sookie blushed. She loved the endearment, 'Wife', but only when I used it when we were both in a very good mood. She told me that each time I said it, she felt as though we had been pulled back in time, saying that it had an archaic sound to it coming from me.

She laughed lightly and gave my hand a tug, "One more door, then you'll see some of it. Go ahead, open it," she said with her eyes twinkling with mirth.

I couldn't help but grin widely and my fangs ran out a little in anticipation or even begin to fathom what was behind the door that had Sookie so excited. I turned the knob and the door opened into a well-lit garage.

As Pam was fond of saying—No. Fucking. Way.

I ran toward the beautiful sight and just barely processed the feeling of Sookie's hand slipping from mine as I moved.

Where in the…? How had she…? When did she find the time?

Thoughts left my mind as I allowed my fingers to slowly move along the sleek curves of the shiny 1970 marlboro maroon Stingray Corvette.

I remembered clearly how excited I'd been to get this car in the 1970s when the fender flares and egg-crate grills with matching front fender side vents were new additions to the line. I'd loved that they'd made the previously round dual exhaust outlets larger and rectangular in shape and had luxuriated in the redesigned seats and deluxe interior of combined wood-grain accents and leather seat surfaces. Gone from Corvettes now were the chrome bumpers at both front and rear, the vacuum actuated pop-up windshield wiper door, as well as the removable rear window common to all 1968-72 coupes.

The paint job on this restored beauty was flawless, not a ding on the perfect curves, the refurbished leather was firm yet soft as it should have been and the top was down, allowing the overhead light to illuminate every perfect detail of the dashboard. It was as though I'd just stepped back in time fifty years.

Most things I was happy to see fade into history, but this car had been a true gem and although I believed that Corvettes were the most attractive and worthy cars on the road today, the 1970 stingray had been my favorite by far. That was if you weren't counting the 1957 Corvette SS, but since that was only a concept car that I snuck onto the racetrack to drive before its one and only race, you really couldn't count it.

I still felt partially responsible for its failure in the 12 Hours of Sebring race where it dropped out after 23 laps due to suspension failure. The night before the race, I had taken it on a 40-lap joyride, reaching speeds of 120 miles per hour on curves—a rare feat in those days. I've always wondered if I was the reason the car model was put into an early retirement.

Tucking that depressing thought away, I opened the hood and realized that I had been wrong about this car. This stingray was even better than the original. Sookie had replaced the guts with the best that modern technology had to offer.

When I finished exploring every inch of the vehicle, I returned to my wife with my fangs fully extended. I grinned down at her completely turned on, but for once, I didn't touch her. My fingers were itching for another love of mine right now. Sookie noticed and smiled, bouncing up and down on her toes, absolutely tickled that her gift had been so well received.

"Where are we, Sookie?"

"Utah."

Fuck me. Elijah, Utah's King and I had worked together occasionally, but he wouldn't be happy to learn that I was here without notice. If possible, my smile grew even wider.

"And the chest in the trunk?"

"More weapons, some blood and blankets-just in case."

I licked my lips and my fingers twitched again with impatience. I had to get behind the wheel of that beauty as soon as possible. I hadn't driven a Corvette in over sixteen years and I needed the feel of the power and the freedom it offered. It was the next best thing to flying, but the tie I had to the machinery and the pavement gave me that tiny bit of vulnerability I didn't feel when in the air under my own power. It was akin to dressing up for Halloween in that I could go no faster than a human in this guise; I was limited by what the machine could offer me.

Finally I swept Sookie up into my arms, but not to enjoy the wonderland of her body. My goal was to get us into the car as quickly as possible. I carefully lowered her into the leather passenger seat as I slid into the driver's seat. At the same time, I grabbed the keys from the dash and with a twist of my wrist; the car came to life with the trademark Corvette roar. The satisfying sound was made even louder by the tight confines of the tiny garage and my own accompanying laughter.

Sookie silently pointed to the top left side of her foot well and I activated the garage door opener with a press of my finger. I was too close to deny myself the chance to thank her in this small way for giving me this car and unbelievable opportunity. My hand lingered on her leg, journeying up until I found what I was looking for. Sookie closed her eyes and her mouth opened as she sat back in the seat and absorbed the sweet sensation of my fingers pleasuring her.

I just gave her a teaser before I took my hand away to caress another woman—a woman my wife had given to me with the expectation that I would drive her hard and long. Before Sookie could open her eyes or voice a complaint, the car roared even louder as I put it in drive and careened down the long, winding driveway of the secluded home.

Sookie gave me directions, and with two turns we were on a smooth highway heading south. Over the next few minutes, Sookie explained what had led to us speeding down this empty highway in the wee hours of the morning with the wind whipping our hair and pounding our eardrums.

The house, which she had purchased a few months ago, was simply a means to attaining a garage in this isolated part of Utah for a very specific reason. It was nestled at the intersection of SR-95 and SR-261. SR-261, the road we were on at the moment, led south toward a tiny town called Mexican Hat, named so for the rock outcropping on the northeastern edge of town.

The car enthusiasts she'd spoken with had told her that this stretch of newly paved highway had little traffic and offered unbelievable driving that included a four-mile, almost vertical descent and a grouping of 180-degree turns. My smile turned almost feral at the thought of what was to come on the road and my foot inched down that tiny bit more until the pedal was flat on the floor. I was satisfied to see Sookie's fingers reflexively tighten on the door handle even though her satisfied smile never faded and her eyes never moved from my face.

I was ecstatic to find that the enthusiasts had been right. It was an amazing drive that had Sookie grabbing onto the door handle many more times as she slid around on the smooth seat. She used two hands to hold on when I sped down the vertical descent, yelling out a battle cry as the needle of the speedometer hit 160 on the original gauge and vibrated violently.

Peeking a glance at her, I pulled the car into a tight U-turn, eliciting a high-pitched scream from my nervous wife. The tires squealed and the engine roared as I pushed the car back up the incline and through the hairpin turns, leaning forward in my seat and gripping the steering wheel with both hands.

When we made it down the incline the second time, I followed the road the rest of the way south to the tiny sleeping town of Mexican Hat. I slowed and pulled into an unused driveway just past Valle's Trading Post and put the car into park. The sudden absence of movement and noise made every sensation that much more intense and I was so filled with lust, I was vibrating internally as violently as the needle on the speedometer.

With smooth movements, I unfastened Sookie's seat belt and slid into the seat behind her, turning her so that she was facing me with her bent knees straddling my thighs. It was a tight fit, but we managed.

Her face was flushed from the wind and the excitement and her breath hitched as I ran my long fingers into her hair, working out a few of the knots that were twisted through it. Her hands mirrored my action and her soft lips kissed my cheekbones and brow.

"Thank you, Love." I whispered into the now deafening silence.

"You're welcome. I know you've missed it."

"I have."

My hands left her hair and began to work on the button at the top of her pants. She moaned and wiggled away as much as she could in the tight confines of the car and my arms.

"Baby, no," she crooned tenderly, "we don't have enough time before sunrise. We'll go to Hana once we get the car back to the garage."

I spread my legs a little, effectively trapping her thighs between my legs and the car. There was no way I was not going to have her here and now.

"We have time," I purred into her ear, nibbling and licking in ways I knew she couldn't resist. "I will drive back faster."

"As if that's possible," she giggled breathlessly as her body relaxed and her heart rate increased to the pace I associated with our lovemaking. I knew I had her and my body responded with every inch of my skin singing in anticipation of her touch and taste.

With her last bit of restraint, she cast out a mental net to make sure we were alone. The act was accompanied by a slight tilt of her head and tension in her brow since she was reaching farther away than usual. Everyone must have been asleep or tucked quietly away in the trailer park we'd passed right off the highway for with a contented sigh, she relented and melted under the encouragement of my hungry hands and mouth.

Knowing that time was short, she magicked all her clothes off but left her weapons on, knowing how much I loved the sight of the black leather straps against her skin. This left her mostly bare against my clothed body and I growled in appreciation when the cool night air mixed with the moisture from my mouth, making her nipples pucker and harden. I worked her nipples with the perfect amount of pressure-just enough to keep her gasping with pleasure-filled tension and then I slid my hand down over her belly and did the same further south. She was so warm and wet for me and our position held her legs wide open, giving me ample room to explore. Sookie freed me from my pants and made quick work of driving me mad with her warm palm and deft fingers.

She was trembling with need when I finally stripped off my shirt and slipped down my pants, freeing one leg fully. Sookie pushed away from me and when I saw her intent, I had never been so grateful that the Corvette had large foot wells since it gave her enough room to wiggle herself down between my legs. She smiled up at me, ran her thumb over the head of my penis and then took me into her hot mouth.

Reflexively, I wrapped my legs around her, pulling her as close as I could get her and worked my hips in rhythm with her efforts. Her left hand abandoned me and the next thing I knew, the seat was reclining back the tiny bit the interior of the car allowed, giving her a chance to get even closer to me. I moaned a wordless oath as I slipped further down her hot throat and without thought, I grabbed her hair tightly when she swallowed and then sucked me even tighter between her lips and cheeks. Before I came, I let go of her and fisted my hands, afraid to hurt her if I maintained my a grasp on her.

My body surged with pleasure such as only she could give to me. This woman. This woman. I loved her utterly. That fact still amazed me even though she has been with me every night for four months now, but after a millennia of denying any emotions or only loving my children Pam and Emelina, the reality of the change of tides of my fortune was still astounding to me.

She continued to suck me until I was fully relaxed and then with a playful sparkle to her eyes and an audible pop, she released me from her mouth. The chill of the night seeped in, making me feel bereft so I gathered her in my arms and took flight, landing at the front of the car and placing her on the hood so she was spread open for me like a banquet.

I lowered myself to my knees, ignoring the bite of the gravel under me, brought her hips to my mouth and licked her from back to front, lingering to tease her clitoris a few times with my tongue and blunt teeth. She writhed and moaned, and then gasped a voiceless complaint when I stopped to laughingly hiss, "Stay still or you'll scratch my new car." I could hear grains of sand and dirt being ground into the paint with each of her motions and knew she would be upset if she scratched it. I would just get it repainted, but she had gone to too much trouble for me to treat it carelessly.

Thankfully, she laughed out and then grasped my hair roughly to find some point of stability.

"Better?" she asked wickedly, "I don't want to damage your new toy."

Her new position ensured that she was looking directly at me, giving me an intimate glimpse into everything she was feeling, so it was definitely better. I growled and freed one hand to add to the ministrations of my mouth and before long, I was holding her twitching hips as she came, her muscles squeezing my fingers tightly inside her.

I didn't wait for her to relax, I couldn't. I needed her too much. Instead, I wrapped one of her legs over my elbow and the other around my hip and then placed my left hand on the hood and curled the other under her shoulders, raising her so that her weight was off the car. When we were stable, I began to pound into her, using my height as compared to hers to great advantage. She kept her firm grip on my hair and neck even though she was safe in my arms and the pain in my scalp combined with pleasure, making the experience even more intense.

When we were both close to climaxing, she pulled herself upright and bit her tongue, allowing her blood to pool in her mouth as the wound healed. I nearly lost it then, imagining her delicious blood released from her veins and waiting for me. Thankfully, she pulled my head to her and kissed me deeply. I came violently as her blood trickled between her lips and into my mouth. I sucked and licked around the contours of her mouth, seeking out every drop. Her blood was still warm-almost as warm as it would be coming directly from her veins but this way we didn't have the risk of hurting her.

I moved my thumb to her clitoris and stroked her a few times and she came, muffling her screams in my neck and then I lowered us gently onto the roof of the car and we remained there for a few minutes undoubtedly looking like an obscene hood ornament.

Just over twenty minutes later, I pulled the car into the garage of our little getaway house and Sookie closed the garage door behind us. Once again she took my hand in hers.

"To Hana?" I asked, but she shook her head looking very satisfied with how the night had gone so far.

"Eventually, but first we need to make a quick stop back at the headquarters for a change of clothes."

I raised an eyebrow at her, anticipation building within me again. "More surprises?"

"Just a little one."

I grinned widely, and laced her slim fingers between mine as she took us back to the sitting room. When we arrived, I turned to her and noticed that through the flush from the wind and cool night air, a new pink tint was appearing on her cheeks.

"You're blushing Sookie." I said, running my fingertips over her cheeks. "What's going on?"

She put her hand over mine, but didn't answer my question. "Go into my room and pick out an outfit."

"You have my clothes in your closet?" I was confused now.

"No, you're picking an outfit for me to wear. Don't bring it out, just think about it," she said, and her cheeks flushed even more. I couldn't understand why she was feeling so shy about this, it's not like I hadn't seen her dressed in just about everything and nothing. Minutes ago, I'd had every part of me that I could manage buried deep within her. There was no reason for her to be shy…and then I caught onto what she was saying.

Within two seconds, my eyes flared dangerously, my fangs ran out and I was hard again. I growled at her hungrily and immediately went into the room, closing the door firmly behind me.

The room was peppered with outfits, all fitting different themes. Three would fit into the category of 'naughty girl,' two were sporty, two dressy and luxurious and two were girl next door. It was one from the last group that caught my eye and I snatched it up immediately, sniffing it and running my fingers over the bodice. I caught Miriam's scent on it and silently thanked her for helping Sookie.

On the other side of the room, Sookie had laid out a plethora of matching lingerie sets, complete with a variety of stockings, garters, crotchless panties, bras, corsets and body stockings. I gaped at all the options, imagining her in each and every one of them, knowing I'd get her into each one before long. It's not that Sookie didn't wear nice lingerie, she always had matching bra and underwear sets, it's just that I rarely took the time to look at them before I ripped them off and I certainly didn't need to see her in them to get me in the mood. In fact, the more I could see, smell and feel of her skin the better. I ran my fingers over the fragile materials and made my choice.

The process had only taken me about two minutes, but it was clear from Sookie's emotions that this was at least ninety seconds longer than she could stand.

I pulled the door open and positioned myself so I would fill the doorway. She bit her lip when I stared at her with my eyes hungry and my mind full of the items I'd selected for her. She closed the distance, pulled me into her arms and the next moment we were in Hana and she was wearing her new clothes.

Holy fuck did I love this dress. I leaned back from her so I could gaze upon her fully and then lowered my head to her breasts, which were lovingly supported inside the tight white sundress with tiny red flowers all over.

It was even better since I knew that under the dress, she wore small white lace panties and nothing else and I knew that the lace was thin enough that I would be able to experience her in every way through the material if I decided to leave it on for any amount of time.

I ran my hands up her thighs and under the dress until they were resting on her bottom. She had removed her weapons for this part of our evening. We were very safe here in Hana and if there ever were a problem, we had weapons buried all over the property.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked, making sure that the tone of my voice conveyed that I had no complaints, but was simply curious as to her intent.

"You always seem to know exactly what I want. I want this to be about you—about what you want tonight. I'm worried we haven't done enough to meet your needs since you don't get the thrill of drinking my blood anymore." I frowned and squeezed her round butt cheeks a little but she continued. "I guess I'm also curious if there are other things you want to do that we haven't done yet simply because we haven't talked about it."

I hummed and allowed my lips to ghost over the exposed tops of her breasts to hide my smile. I'd lost count of the reasons I loved her, but first I needed to make sure she was being completely honest with me.

"There are infinite possibilities, Sookie." I said, making sure she felt my breath on her sensitive skin. "Are you bored?"

"No. Just curious." The bond and the tone of her voice told me that was the truth.

I hummed again and brought my lips back up to her jaw and then I gently pushed her back half a step. She glanced up at me in confusion and I heard her heart skip a beat when she saw the look in my eyes.

She wanted this to be all about me? She wanted to try something new? She thought I was missing thrills? I knew exactly how to satisfy all those concerns and both of us at the same time. Mirrored in her eyes, I saw my hunger and primal need staring back at me from wide black irises ringed with blue. My fangs were long and aching with the need to bite. Instinctively, she withdrew a little more from me, but only minutely so. She knew she was safe with me.

"Run." I said and my voice was rough and low.

"What?" she asked, dropping her shields and searching for the danger around us.

I cupped my hand firmly around her throat and brought her attention back to me.

"Run." I said again and my lips turned up slightly at the edges while my eyes flashed with excitement. My body was coming to life with the anticipation of the hunt. Perhaps she was right and I did need this.

A shudder ran through her body when she realized what I wanted.

"Give me a head start?" she asked and I could already see her plotting her escape.

"Five seconds and no teleporting." I closed my eyes, still smiling and as I heard her turn, I removed the weapon holsters from my body and dropped them to the ground at my feet.

At the end of the fifth second, I opened my eyes to see her leaping into the sky and shifting into a falcon. I laughed out loud and began the chase.


	50. Chapter 50

A/N: I promise that I will finish this story. I haven't given up on it! Thanks to all of you for sticking with me so far.

Chapter 50 A Parent's Job

E~

"You look like the cat that ate the canary," Sookie purred as she leaned over me, gently running her fingertips along the line of my jaw. I marveled at how her skin felt cooler than usual in comparison to mine. It was a strange sensation, but one I welcomed without pause since it was my body temperature that was different, not hers.

Her words made me smile and I opened my eyes, waiting for the response I knew was coming.

There it was—her heart paused slightly as it always did when she really looked at me in the bright sunlight. I understood her reaction. If it could, my heart would clench too when I looked at her.

It was seeing her bathed in the sunlight, more than seeing the sun itself that made me feel like I'd stepped back in time to another lifetime-my human lifetime. This was something very few of my kind ever got to experience and no matter how many times we did this, spent time in the sun, I'd never get used to it or take a minute of it for granted.

"Or perhaps the saying should be that I look like the cat who ate the falcon," I teased. She laughed lightly and nipped at my shoulder. Ah, she was still in a playful mood. I could definitely do something with that.

"You're very proud of yourself, aren't you?" she accused impishly, causing my smile to widen. "Did you ever think that maybe I let you catch me."

I flipped us over so I was on top and she tensed beneath me, unnecessarily worried about how I would tolerate being so exposed to the sun. After a moment, she relaxed when I didn't show any signs of discomfort. There was no need for her to worry, the African Tulip tree we were resting under gave us some relatively dense shade from the direct sunlight, and although I could feel the sun caressing my body, I would be fine for a while yet.

"Not possible," I said, taking a deep and unnecessary breath as I stretched my back—thoroughly enjoying the growing warmth of the early morning as it heated my newly exposed skin. If the action caused my pelvis to press even more firmly against hers, then that was simply an added benefit.

"What's not possible?" she asked through a moan of pleasure as her fingers wound into my hair and tugged lightly.

I started to answer her, but paused when she stilled, the heat of passion disappearing from her face. Her eyes were alert but unseeing and most of her attention was focused internally as though she was listening to our bond. She clearly wasn't listening to me though since I was here and my mood was very obvious.

Experience had taught me that these behaviors occurred when she felt some form of shift through the energy she shared with the sera fae. I scanned her peaceful backyard but found no threats that I could perceive.

She focused for a moment longer and then relaxed, but to my acute displeasure, she was suddenly clothed, having magicked on a pair of tight exercise shorts and tank top that she called 'Under Armour,' that she often wore when working out or literally under her armor when training.

Although she was dressed, she was relatively calm so I didn't bother grabbing the jeans that I'd left in the grass a few feet away. If this had something to do with the sera fae as I suspected, I didn't need clothing to meet with them. I did eye the dagger that was lying on the ground next to my pants and rolled us so we were side by side—freeing both of us in the event of an attack. I wasn't taking any chances, especially given that the sun had already risen and I was at a distinct disadvantage as it was.

After another quick scan of the area, I continued my earlier train of thought. "You would not have let me catch you or…thrown the match. It goes against your nature to give up in a physical challenge until you have been outwitted or physically defeated. And I did both." I didn't exactly believe my words, she gave up for emotional reasons, but I wanted to reinforce the behaviors I wished to see in her, by drawing attention to them rather than focusing on her weaknesses right now.

Her eyes twinkled with mirth. "You did a little bit more than that, I would say. However, let me remind you that it took you over an hour to catch me the second time," she taunted and then twitched uncomfortably. This time, I actually felt a surge of power coming through her fingertips. It didn't hurt me, but because we were so closely connected through blood, body and energy, I was in tune with her natural energy flow.

"Yes, but it only took me two minutes the first time," I returned, trying to help keep her relaxed.

"You didn't give me the full five-second head start," she teasingly accused, trying to hide her discomfort but I didn't miss that she was unconsciously running a hand over my chest in a protective gesture. She was so easy to read, even if we didn't have the bond to rely on.

There was nothing to fear, we both knew that, she could have us back home in under a second; she was just unnerved because these sensations were unusual. I took her hand from my chest and kissed her palm, sending her calming influences through the bond, it disturbed me to see her worried, even if she wouldn't admit it.

Perhaps it was 'Eleu or Kane she was sensing. I glanced around the property again but Sookie stopped me with a small shake of her head. The energy was not coming from them.

"No," I said, returning us to our easy banter. "_You_ didn't take advantage of the five-second head start that I gave you. You wasted at least two of them watching me." She smiled when I grinned up at her and wiggled my eyebrows. I could tell she had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing.

"Must be the fact that you're so darn ugly she couldn't tear her eyes away," a familiar voice taunted from behind the nearest rock outcropping.

Sookie gasped and jumped to her feet, moving quickly toward the source of the voice. I knew there was no danger here so I stayed where I was and waited for him to show himself. Hunter stepped out from behind the rocks, casually picked up my pants from the grass and threw them to me with a friendly but disgusted sneer.

I laughed at his discomfort with finding me naked with Sookie, caught the pants and set them to the side, folding my hands casually behind my head. I wanted to make it clear that he was interrupting our time together and if he wanted to stay here, he'd just have to deal with my state of undress.

Sookie's heart was pounding with a mixture of the anxiety she'd been feeling and now with the pure joy of seeing her son again. I knew they often called one another 'cousin,' but when it mattered, they referred to one another as mother and son, so that's how I thought of them.

I watched carefully as Sookie launched herself at him and was swept up into a huge hug in which she looked even smaller and more fragile than ever.

"You've grown even more," she laughed as he flexed his muscles just for show. He still had nothing on me, I was sure, but he'd developed significantly in the short time he'd been away.

"If you think this is good," he said gesturing to himself, "just wait till you see what I can do." He let Sookie go, shot her a devious grin and then disappeared into the ground. My eyebrows rose at the sight and Sookie actually squealed as she jumped up and down waving her hands.

"He can terraport! Eric, he can terraport!" she yelled, her voice returning to a more comfortable sound.

I smiled and nodded; this certainly was an interesting development but what really mattered was that this skill could make the difference when engaging the sera fae. If Hunter could follow and track other sera fae by terraporting, that would erase one of the greatest advantages they had over us.

I looked around for him and suddenly he was next to me, sprawled out like my fully clothed mirror image. I couldn't help it, I smiled while Sookie cheered again and laughed at his antics. She'd told me how he'd been so frustrated when he couldn't figure out how to teleport and I guess we knew why now. That one generation further away from the fairy blood must allow him to be that much more sera fae than Sookie and as such he appeared to be more connected to the earth than the sky.

Sookie sat down on the grass by my side and grinned widely at the sight of us. I knew what she was seeing; two tall and formidably built men, one darker with bulky muscles and the other fair and built for speed and powerful endurance.

I turned my head to look directly at Hunter, gave him a small sniff and frowned. Hunter grimaced, "Yeah? Well I'm not going to mention what you reek of, Eric, because I don't even want to think about it." I knew exactly what both Sookie and I smelled like and so I grinned proudly and puffed up my chest just to irritate him.

He snarled at me and then shook his head when I jerked my chin in Sookie's direction. He had something to tell Sookie and I wasn't going to be the one to face her wrath. Sookie glanced back and forth between us, trying to figure out what was going on and I knew from her expression that she had been blocked from looking into his mind. Fabulous. I guess it was up to me after all since Hunter was not going to talk.

"So, Hunter," I began casually, "when are you planning on explaining to your mother why you smell like fairy?"

Hunter clenched his jaw and gave me a perfect 'fuck you' glare. If I hadn't just watched Sookie's face pale, I would have laughed at how easy it was to set him off.

Then, despite our location, which prohibited fairies from being here by its very geological makeup, Sookie tensed and began to glow slightly, preparing for a fight. She was staring at Hunter, but it was clear that she wasn't seeing him, but a future filled with what she saw as unspeakable horrors.

I gestured to her, urging Hunter to get on with it before she completely lost all semblance of reason and began to act out of instinct, but Hunter simply narrowed his eyes at me and mumbled, "And whose fucking fault is it that she's upset? She didn't have to know." I shook my head; I was not taking the blame for being the messenger of bad news. She had every right to know what he'd been up to and it was time for him to step up and tell her about whatever had happened.

Before he could say anything, Sookie was on her knees at his side and he slowly sat up so they were eye to eye.

"What?" she demanded and in that one minute, three months of relative calm and security that existed in our lives faded away. Our bond was filled with the tinny pulsations of her fear. "Where are the Britlingens? Why are you even here? What happened?"

"Relax," he chided calmly, and I closed my eyes briefly at his stupidity. He clearly didn't know her very well if he was hoping to calm her down with that comeback. He didn't get the chance to dig his hole any deeper because she suddenly grabbed his right hand and pulled it to her.

"No, no, no, no." she said, shaking her head as she clearly saw the dried blood caked between his ring and middle finger that must have been the primary source of the fairy scent I'd picked up from him. He obviously missed this bit of blood when he'd cleaned himself off after battling the fairy.

Imbecile.

Despite my irritation with him, I couldn't help but imagine how that blood would taste if I were to clean it off for him, but the idea of licking Sookie's son's hand along with the exasperated look I got from Sookie helped me temper my desires.

"Mom, calm down," Hunter said in another stellar train wreck of a response.

"Hunter, please tell me you didn't fight a fairy…please."

"I didn't fight a fairy," he lied as he nonchalantly wet his thumb and rubbed it on the blood between his fingers and then used my neglected pants to wipe it away.

Did I say imbecile? I meant bloody fool.

I never lost control, I was accustomed to the scent of fairy blood, but the smell would always tempt me at least a little. My nostrils flared and my fangs ran out as the scent intensified tenfold, but Sookie reacted first by yelling out in frustration as she ripped the pants from Hunter's grasp and placed her hand on the bloodstain. A second later, the material burst into flames under her hand and the enticing scent of pure fairy blood was replaced by that of burnt jeans. With an irritated huff, she tossed the destroyed jeans ten feet away and after giving me a cursory glance, she turned back to Hunter.

"This isn't a joke, Hunter," she snarled, her eyes flashing with anger.

Although I hated feeling her fear, I loved seeing her like this, especially when there was no immediate danger and her anger wasn't directed at me.

"You're supposed to be with the Britlingens. You're supposed to be safe. They're supposed to be protecting you. Where are they?" she demanded, her voice growing in volume with each sentence. Hunter glanced at me, not quite repressing an eye roll and I felt his careless action wound her sensitive heart.

I stopped enjoying the show right then and sat up with my back against the tree, still preserving as much energy as was possible. I was not going to be party to his discounting her concerns as those of an irrational and over-protective mother. Hunter took my cue and sighed deeply before turning back to his mother. This time his voice was gentle and more respectful just as it should be while speaking to her.

"Their job was never to protect me—it was to instruct me on how to protect myself and they've done that. I'm done."

"That's ridiculous. It's been less than four months; you're supposed to stay with them for a year, Hunter. They were contracted to work with you for a full year. You most certainly are not done. You've just begun."

I knew she gained comfort from the fact that there was a set plan for how Hunter's training was supposed to happen. The knowledge that he was safe for the next eight months had given her some much-needed breathing room from her worries about him and she would have a hard time letting go of that sense of security.

"No," he said gently but firmly. "I'm done."

"You can't be. You're not ready."

"I am." His smile was back, but it didn't comfort either of us, instead it terrified her and set off warning sirens in my mind.

"How? How could that be possible?"

"I learn fast," and his smile took a cocky turn that made her nauseous.

"This isn't a joke Hunter. This is your life, your security. Do you remember Oakland?"

"Yes." The word was hissed and his eyes took on a glare I'd seen hundreds of times reflected in the horror-filled eyes of my opponents just before I killed them. My opinion of him improved when I saw that familiar expression, it was the look of a warrior. "And I wish they'd come for us now. I'm not so easy to take down anymore."

Sookie groaned and pulled at her hair, totally at her wits end.

"Listen," Hunter said with frustration clear in his voice, "I'm fine. I won that battle with the fairy, didn't I? He's not home having a _pleasant_ conversation with his mother, I am." My hands fisted at the sarcasm that tainted his deliberately hurtful words.

This dynamic was so strange for me to witness. I'd never spent much time paying attention to relationships between human mothers and sons, but I knew that no son in my village would have ever spoken to his mother, adoptive or not, in this way. It seemed to me that the only thing Hunter could possibly accomplish by talking to Sookie in this way would be to push her away and I was sure that must be his ultimate goal.

Whenever Pam got so out of line that she spoke to me in a similar manner, all it took was one look from me to set her straight. Clearly human parents didn't have that type of control over their children. It was a shame.

Sookie was frozen in place with her hands tightly wrapped in her hair and then she finally thawed enough to turn to me, her eyes begging me for help. I glanced between the two of them for a few seconds, carefully gauging my words, before I spoke.

"First. You will watch your words when you speak to my wife. Do you understand me? I don't care if she is your mother, cousin, friend or the one thing holding you to your old life. You will speak to her respectfully." Hunter had the sense to look ashamed, but I waited until he nodded. Sookie was still frozen, staring at me with panicked eyes, appearing not to have heard anything that had passed between Hunter and I.

I looked for the right path to follow with my questioning and spoke with a neutral voice when I was ready. "What did your trainers have to say about you leaving?"

Sookie blinked a few times and then nodded enthusiastically, sure that the Britlingens would never tolerate this kind of carelessness.

"They said that I lasted longer than some." He looked back at Sookie. "No one but you has ever stayed the whole year."

I was struck by the thought that she could have returned to me long before she did, but the sight of Sookie's shocked face made me realize that she'd never contemplated leaving, even if she knew she would be allowed to go, which I doubted. I was once again reminded about how trusting my wife was even now, and I found that thought anything but comforting.

"They weren't surprised when I told them I was ready to leave. They'd already anticipated I wouldn't last long so they sped up my training process."

"I don't believe it." Sookie said with a shaky voice. "Shields, weapons, terraporting…control. You couldn't have learned enough. I'm still learning, Hunter. Even a full year wasn't enough."

"It was enough for me. I'm done. I'm not spending one more endless day there kissing uptight Britlingen ass. I'm ready to be out on my own. I've already proven it by killing that fairy." He had the courtesy to look chagrined when his words caused Sookie to blanch even further and when he continued talking; his voice was softer as though he was pleading her to understand him. "I want to live my life now. I'm tired of hiding from the bogeyman, preparing for the big fight—it's all I've done my whole life. I'm ready. I'm done practicing."

They stared at one another, communicating telepathically until the moment was ruined when pain trickled through the bond. I cursed my weakness since what we were feeling wasn't emotional; it was physical and it wasn't hers-it was mine. Fuck.

Sookie gasped and tore her eyes from Hunter to look at me. I retained my relaxed posture against the tree, but there was no way I could hide the pain of my cells declaring that they had finally had enough exposure to the sun.

I'd run out of time.

Sookie didn't feel my frustration since she was busy berating herself for losing track of how long we'd been out here. She quickly reached out for me, intending to teleport us back home, but I caught her hand in mine and gently pressed her palm into the grass at my side.

"Wait," I instructed and then turned to Hunter. The little shit (I used that designation with at least a tiny bit of affection from the quasi-friendship we'd developed in the year Sookie was in Britlin) was already causing problems and I needed to tell him a few things to ensure damage control.

"We've been given many warnings about not trusting anyone. I would include all of the sera fae and Britlingens in that group." Sookie gaped at me and then she saw reason and nodded sadly. Although she needed to always be questioning everyone's motives, I hated seeing the look in her eyes when life stripped away her faith in people. It always left her looking a little bit hollow for a few days afterward until she adapted to her new reality.

"Think carefully through everything they said to ensure that you are not being led into a trap. You do not have the luxury of relaxing and having fun anymore. You must always be on alert and make every single decision with extreme caution. For if you, in your haste, take a foolish step that gets Sookie hurt, I will personally…" I stopped when Sookie's fingers bit into my forearm but I continued looking straight at Hunter. "I'm sure I don't have to finish that statement for you to understand what I'm saying."

Hunter ignored my threat but glanced worriedly at Sookie. I was mildly comforted to see that he was disturbed by the idea of his actions causing Sookie to be hurt.

I nodded at him when he looked back at me. "You know she will come to your defense so don't ever put yourself at risk."

I glared at Hunter until I received a small nod from him.

Good.

"I offer you a place in my kingdom where you can live under my protection in buildings warded against fairies." Hunter's cheek twitched at my suggestion, so I tried another tactic. "But if you refuse, I would recommend that you stay here or in some other volcanic land where fairies can not follow you."

"I learned that bit in hour one of my training and I'm not going into hiding," Hunter said dismissively.

"I am not entering into a discussion with you about this. I am simply providing you with options, advice and warning." I emphasized the last word to make my point about not bringing trouble to Sookie crystal clear.

The burning in my body had increased in intensity every second and I couldn't hide that from Sookie. She looked desperately from me to Hunter. "Wait here for me?" she begged, and the tone in her voice caused my fists to clench again. I knew they were family, but I hated hearing her beg for anything.

He debated silently; clearly uncomfortable with the idea of staying for any amount of time, and it was all I could do to refrain from knocking some sense into him. I didn't think he needed to stay indefinitely, but he could at least give her some time to adjust to the circumstances.

"Please, Hunter. Please don't leave yet. Let's talk about this some more." He finally nodded and she took me back to our bedroom at the headquarters in the blink of an eye.

The pull of day was stronger here and so I was sluggish as she quickly covered me with the sheet, but I still managed to maintain my grasp on her hand.

"Don't trust him, Sookie."

"Eric, he's my son," she said unbelievingly.

"He's an unknown variable. You can love him, but don't place your faith in him."

She shook her head. "I'm going back." I growled feebly, almost asleep now and hated the sound immediately.

"I'm going to get Thalia. She'll be able to talk some sense into him and she can be up all day so long as she's out of the direct sunlight. I'll get her and take her to Hana with me."

"Sheila," was all I could say as I nodded my support of her plan.

"Fine. I'll get her too. I'll be fine," she mumbled distractedly.

I watched through sleepy eyes as she ran to her dresser and got 'Eleu's letter for Hunter. Her fingers twitched over the note attached to the sealed letter on which was written the words, "Trust none."

I knew she was fearful that she could be giving Hunter the ammunition he needed to break all ties with her if she passed on that specific note from their makua. He would take the note more literally than Sookie had and would include her into the category of people he wouldn't trust. He didn't see the world in grays like Sookie did, he was more inclined to see in black and white like I was and we both knew it.

Sookie wouldn't be able to handle it if he told her he wasn't going to trust her, but I didn't think she had to worry that he'd leave her forever. It was clear that although he was ready to take the next step in his life and felt that he had to push her away to do so, Hunter loved her deeply. That didn't mean that he would stay, he wouldn't, but I believed they would find a way to make the separation easier on her in the end. At least I hoped so.

Right now though, she was equating trust with love and the two don't always go hand in hand. There were many times in Pam's life as my child that I hadn't been able to trust her, but I still loved her unconditionally. I knew that it was her new nature of being a vampire that caused her to make the unfortunate decisions she did rather than who she was at her core. Eventually, Sookie would realize that Hunter, too, was being driven by his own instinctual urges.

I smiled weakly, remembering how Sookie had behaved when the fairy in her had been suppressed by the heated iron in the detention area. By comparison, Hunter was doing incredibly well. I guess his time with the Britlingens had benefitted him in at least that way.

Sookie would see it eventually. She had told me many times of the struggles she'd had raising Hunter and of the ways she knew she could and couldn't trust him to make the right decisions as a teenager. She simply couldn't see that right now and in this situation, she was too emotional for me to point it out to her.

What made all of this even harder for her, I think, was that she had a confusing relationship with Hunter. She had kept him so close, protected him every moment while he was growing up and now she needed to redefine their relationship and see him as a completely separate individual and supernatural being who was apparently quite different from her.

I kept silent, allowing her to make her decision about what to do with the note on her own. I succumbed to the relentless pull of the sun before she made her choice.

o-o-o

When I awoke, I wasn't at the headquarters where I had fallen asleep, but in our home and Sookie was here somewhere. The scent of her tears was the first thing I registered, followed by her sweat and a tiny bit of her blood. She was asleep but her emotions, even at rest, clearly told me that things had not gone as she had hoped and honestly, I wasn't surprised.

I pulled on some clothes and sought out my wife, finding her curled up asleep in a corner of our gym. From the look of the broken dummy, she'd vented her emotions on it.

She looked so small and defeated on the floor; her hair stringy and clothes stained from sweat and knuckles and elbows spotted with dried blood. I've rarely felt so protective of her and it was just her heart that had been hurt in this case.

I know children have to go their separate ways at some point but I hated that this was hurting her. I wanted to despise him for it, but I couldn't because she loved him so deeply and his actions and desires really didn't seem too unusual or extreme.

All the same, he was lucky that they weren't vampire mother and child or he'd have no choice but to stay with her until she was convinced he was ready to leave as had happened so recently with Pam and Miriam. Some makers even kept their children long after they were ready to go as Appius had done to me.

I sat down next to her and ran my finger across her cheekbone, feeling the tracks of her dried tears. She stirred at my touch and pressed her face into my hand, seeking the comfort of my presence. I took the hint and lowered myself down behind her, curling my body around hers. She instantly flipped over and her arms and legs coiled around me desperately so I held her head to my chest, offering her as much contact as possible.

After a long while, I kissed the top of her head and whispered, "Tell me what happened."

She sighed deeply and nudged me so I pulled us up so that she was sitting in my lap, supported by my bent legs.

"You know what happened. He's not going back to Britlin. He's not staying in Hana or coming here. He doesn't have a clue where he's going or what he'll be doing. He just wants to explore." Her voice sounded hollow and bone tired.

"Thalia?"

She laughed bitterly. "Thalia didn't help a bit. In fact, she supported him. She said that it was unnatural to impose a training period on someone who had already accepted the pa. She believes training should happen before hand like she did and like I tried to do with Hunter while he was a child. She says it's in his nature to want to get away and seek out growth independently.

"Apparently that desire doesn't exist in me because my blood is too diluted. My instincts are muted by those of the emotionally and socially dependent fairies," she said mimicking Thalia's dry tone.

"Hunter is only doing what comes naturally to any healthy, almost full-blooded sera fae. Apparently sera fae don't really like to be together until they've fully matured. It's not just something a makua imposes upon the young ones. It just felt that way to me because I didn't feel the need to be a nomad, traveling God-knows-where all by myself for the however many hundreds of years it will take for me to reach maturity."

I kissed her forehead, offering support in the best way I knew. Once again, her family was being torn apart and it hurt just to see it, much less feel it seeping out of her broken heart.

"So what did you do?" I asked gently.

"What could I do? There's only so much begging and fighting I can do before he hates me for it. He's moving on to what he sees as his purpose and his future and apparently, I'm shitting on his parade." I gave a small disgusted shiver at the imagery her choice of words provoked. "I have to accept it. It fits with everything I've been told about the _normal_ sera fae journey."

"Has he departed already?"

"No, he agreed to stay for a few days once I described how much harder it was to fight vampires and weres with demon blood who didn't mind about spilling our blood the way the Britlingens did. He's excited to fight Will since we can't see him or sense him telepathically, but it was Thalia's one punch knock out that really convinced him to stay for a few days," she said with a wavering smile.

I would have paid anything to see that. No, scratch that, I would have paid anything to have done that without any ramifications from Sookie. She gave me another sad smile and shook her head, sensing my desire.

The worst was over.

"I've condensed your important meetings into the first few hours tonight and then, if you don't mind, I'd like for us to go to Hana with Will. I sent a message to Pam, asking her to handle the other meetings. Hunter's already working with Sheila and Thalia now," she said with a grimace and I laughed knowingly. To say that those two women didn't get along very well was a gross understatement. Hunter would have his hands full with both of them.

"We'll be there," I answered, knowing that Pam was going to hate being left behind but I couldn't worry about her right now. My focus had to be on training Hunter and impressing upon him how dangerous this world could be for one of his blood. Maybe we could entice Kane or 'Eleu to show up and really teach him a lesson from their point of view.

o-o-o

We trained later that night and all through the next three nights.

Hunter was a formidable opponent, especially when in Hawaii. When in Louisiana, however, he was slower, just as Sookie was, but the difference was more pronounced because of how very impressive he was on his 'native' soil.

Beyond the skills of telepathy, heat and fire production, shifting and calling familiar objects to him that he shared with Sookie, Hunter's strengths were most notable in his quick judgment, lack of empathy for his opponent, brute strength that rivaled mine and scrappy fighting style.

I hated to even think it, but those components put together made him not just a better fighter than Sookie, but a better survivor as well. She was always looking for the way to win with the least amount of collateral damage but Hunter plowed right through, ensuring that above anything else, he was the one standing in the end. Even Thalia and Will were impressed and that, more than my approval, helped Sookie to feel confident in his abilities.

If anything, seeing Hunter fight made me more worried about Sookie as it highlighted her weaknesses when compared to his strengths. They were relatively equal in skill, but when in a life or death fight, skill was very rarely the most important variable.

She didn't want to hear it, demanding that we focus on Hunter during this short time that we had with him, but relented when I informed her that we would be working more diligently on her weaknesses as soon as he went on his way. I knew Will had been focusing on trying to toughen her up emotionally and he was on the right track, but I still wasn't sure it would be possible to affect that kind of change on her personality. But I was going to try.

It turned out that Hunter's greatest weakness were that even after fighting and often losing to us, he discounted vampires as opponents because he believed that he would be able to destroy us with his shields. We showed him how he lost his ability to rely on his powers once he had been injured a few times, but I don't believe he fully appreciated the danger. That being said, it was very hard to actually get our hands on him with his shifting and terraporting and this added to his confidence.

His other weakness was that he was uncomfortable when inside most buildings because the materials used in the construction often prohibited his terraporting. He refused to relax for long in the house and instead, simply disappeared into the ground where Sookie couldn't follow.

She didn't admit it but she was a wreck the first time this occurred. It got easier and by the end of his visit and she found comfort in knowing that he was safe wherever he was.

Now I finally understood why Thalia always went to ground during the day rather than choosing the more comfortable environment of a home and a bed. I'd always figured it was that she was paranoid, but as it turns out, they both felt trapped when inside. It was no longer a terraporting issue for Thalia of course, but habits are hard to change and she was one to cling to old patterns.

It turned out that Thalia and Hunter's core personalities were similar in more ways than just their sleeping habits and he listened to advice from her more avidly than from the rest of us. The longer they were together, the more I saw the individual Thalia must have been before she was turned and lost her joy in living.

She was still vicious and bloodthirsty, but she was happy and the connection I'd seen forming between her and Sookie was even stronger with Hunter. What was odder still was that while Thalia became attached to both Hunter and Sookie, Hunter didn't return the feelings. He respected her, but that was all. She understood him and together they didn't have to deal with what they saw as Sookie's ever-present morality and so Thalia allowed Hunter to connect more fully with his true nature. That was the reason he enjoyed being with her rather than the emotional connection Thalia and Sookie felt.

I wouldn't tell Sookie until the dust had settled that I approved as fully as I did, but human morals would just impede Hunter's ability to survive on his own and anyone who said differently was a fool. This included Pele, who in my estimation held Sookie back when she told her to never forget her humanity and her human morals and emotions.

When Hunter left, he agreed to maintain regular contact with Sookie through the use of a satellite phone they had among their emergency supplies in the safe room. He also took a variety of weapons and had a stash of other useful items and backup clothing placed in the house in Hana for whenever he needed to call them to him.

Surprisingly, I think Thalia took the separation worse than Sookie did when our time together came to a close. Being with Hunter and Sookie had provided her with a visceral reminder of what she had lost so long ago and her grief was clearly etched on her face.

At her insistence, I gave her a month off starting that night so she could pull herself back together. Sookie and I were both surprised when she told us she would be returning briefly to see her maker, the Ancient Pythoness. Perhaps this reminder of her past made her homesick in a variety of ways. I carefully asked her to question the oracle to see if she had any more information to add to the cryptic warnings and advice she had already given us.

As Hunter prepared to leave, Thalia gave him a small serpent charm to wear with the necklace 'Eleu had given to him with his letter. She also gave Sookie one of her original serpent armbands from when she was sera fae. I recognized it as one she had worn to important events including the night she reunited with Sookie a few months ago. She promised that when she returned from her sabbatical, she would have two more so they each would have a full set.

The items were both thousands of years old and most definitely priceless so I was relieved when Sookie accepted the gift with grace and promised to treasure the armband as a connection to Thalia, Hunter and all those of her bloodline.

With quick goodbyes, both Hunter and Thalia were gone—one via the ground and the other by way of the sky.

The one time Sookie let herself worry about Hunter, I turned to her and caressed her neck. "I don't think you need to worry about Hunter," I said with a smile, "I got the feeling that Thalia will be with him for the first week or so." Sookie's eyes widened. "She understands him, Sookie. She understands him more than she does you. She knows of his wanderlust and his desire to be independent. It is innate to them, just as finding a small family unit to call your own is innate to the fairy blood in you."

She nodded, having come to terms with this herself.

"We all do," I continued, "in some form or another, what is natural to us. We can fight it or adapt it some, but eventually we must honor our instinctual needs." I looked at her knowingly and she gave a small laugh despite her worry. We knew all about feeding our instinctual needs and just to prove it, I rubbed myself against her soft, warm skin.

"Let's go home," she whispered sweetly into my ear, "we still have a few hours of dark left there and I want to be in our home with you."

What had looked like the beginning of difficult times had working out much better than I had anticipated.

It had been too smooth…almost too easy.

I should have known then that this was just the beginning of our troubles.


	51. Chapter 51

A/N: I'm sorry to make you wait so long for this. This is a short one to get things rolling again. The good news is that I have what will be the next few chapters written in rough draft form! Thanks for hanging in there with me for so long.

Chapter 51 He's Not There

S~

Two months later

For the first time in my life, I knew that I was truly where I was supposed to be and with people who not only fully understood and accepted me but who needed me too. In Hana, I'd found a home and an extended family that I loved deeply, but we'd all known that I was living a lie.

Here, I was a partner, a lover, a friend and a valuable member of an always fascinating and often frustrating team of individuals. Most importantly, I was able to be myself.

Of course it wasn't all smooth sailing; some vampires didn't like Eric's more progressive way of ruling, but it really worked for us and his kingdom, so Eric quickly took care of the few troublemakers who came our way. We also continued to have problems with the Fellowship and other similar hate-based groups, but we hadn't heard anything from the sources of our greater worries, including the fairies and Queen Wu. We certainly never forgot about them, or the ominous warnings from the Ancient Pythoness, but with time, our anxiety about them decreased as things like that tend to do.

Little did I know that it would take only a text from a dear friend to change all that.

o-o-o

I'd lost count of the number of times the phone in my back pocket had buzzed in the last five minutes and when I felt the familiar tickle against my butt cheek, I ignored it once again.

Pam stepped into my pathway, halting the circular pattern I'd been making around the large, meticulously appointed ballroom.

"You're not going to respond to him?" she said with the kind of smile that told me she was delighted that I was going to get into trouble.

"No," I answered cautiously as I stepped around her and continued my pacing. Pam walked along side me, peering at me avidly. "I'm not going to let him break my concentration anymore. I still have a job to do."

Her smile grew, "You know he's just going to keep sending them. By ignoring him, you're upping the ante on his little game."

I pursed my lips and kept walking.

"Let me see what he's sent so far." I glared at her. "Hand it over, Sookie. I already know from your reaction what the first one was about." She let her fangs run out and I rolled my eyes. "I want to see if they're similar to the notes he used to send when he was trying to get a rise out of me in public."

She wasn't going to back down so I unlocked my phone and gave it to her. She licked her lips as she read and her fangs ran out even further. Not that I blamed her, the texts were suggestive to say the least. The only ones I'd read had, in deliciously descriptive words, detailed exactly what he'd be doing to me right now if we were in bed, on the floor, the table, the stairs, in the pool…

My traitorous insides melted as my imagination ran away with me and when the head caterer gave me a startled look as he scurried by, I realized that I'd cursed Eric out loud for being such an overwhelming temptation to me while I was working. So much for not letting him distract me. Pam laughed out loud again and sent a message back to Eric. I so didn't want to read that text. Then she handed me back the phone and returned to whatever she had been doing before interrupting me.

I understood what Eric was doing and why, but it didn't help me when I was already struggling. Eric and I had been too busy the last three nights to take more than a minute for one another and since I'd been working around the clock, we hadn't even been able to escape to Hana. And now that he'd finally finished most of what he needed to do tonight, he'd decided that it was time to play. The problem was that I wasn't done yet and I wouldn't be done until we got home tomorrow night.

My only saving grace was that before we became so entrenched in the details building up to tomorrow night, we'd blocked out a few hours before dawn tonight, just for us. At the time, I'd wanted those hours set aside specifically to ensure that he would have my blood the night before the upcoming meeting so that he would be as strong as possible. Now, we were desperate for the alone time to clear our minds from this overwhelming sexual tension that was driving us both mad.

I rolled my shoulders and licked my lips as my phone buzzed three more times within a minute and a wave of lust hit me through the bond. He was going to kill me with this game of his. For one brief moment, I was tempted to simply walk across the ballroom and drag him into a dark closet, but as I scanned the room, I made eye contact with a human in the far corner who was setting one of the many beautifully appointed tables and my mind cleared and focused again. I had a job to do and the sight of the shy woman reminded me how very important my role was in bringing weeks of planning to a successful conclusion.

In less than twenty-four hours, we would all be back here at the New Orleans Country Club for Eric's biennial Strategic Roadmap meeting with the Governor of Louisiana, the Mayor of New Orleans and other top human members of the government and business world.

This was a high-pressure event not only because Eric and his Sheriffs would be setting the tone and agenda for the coming two years, but because it was also our most widely publicized event of the year. We would have representatives from both local and national news crews here to cover parts of the meeting between Louisiana's most influential vampires and humans, and believe me when I say that all eyes, human and supernatural, would be on us. No mistakes could be allowed.

Tonight, simply being our dry run, was a less stressful event for most everyone in attendance. Unfortunately, I was one of the few who didn't have the luxury of relaxing. I couldn't take my eyes off the ball, no matter how tempting Eric was, this was too important and if I missed one thing, we could all pay the price. Memories of Rhodes shimmered sickly in the back of my mind, taunting and terrifying me. I'd missed the signs then but I wouldn't miss them this time.

It wasn't just the memories that were bothering me, I was sure something was going to happen either tonight, tomorrow or during the event tomorrow night. If I were a member of the Fellowship, I would make it my top priority to target and disrupt tomorrow's meeting in any way I could and given the throng of rabid protesters gathered across the street from the club entrance, they were thinking the same thing. So, I would continue to be on high alert until this was all over.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one ensuring our safety like it had seemed in Rhodes. Vampires had learned that night that they couldn't sit back and ignore the humans anymore. So everyone had been working for weeks to make sure that we did everything possible to make sure the event would go off without a hitch. The entire club, to the chagrin of New Orleans's wealthiest golfers, had been shut down for the week and no one got in or out without a thorough search and the approval of our perimeter team. We'd had tight security comprised of vampires and Weres stationed around the private club and even more around this isolated Events building at the center of the golf course all week.

Lev and I had carefully selected the humans and Weres we'd hired from outside our regular employee pool and had spent the last two days double-checking everyone to make sure they hadn't been compromised in any way. To top all that off, Maeve was here again tonight with her personal guards, fortifying the anti-fairy wards she'd placed on the building last weekend. So, everything should go smoothly tomorrow night.

_Should._

I knew the supernatural world well enough at this point never to put too much faith into thinking that anything would ever go exactly the way I expected or hoped. So I continued to focus, ignoring yet another vibration from the phone in my pocket and listening in on all the minds, Were and human, as I wandered around the large, beautifully decorated, and glass-walled building.

As I passed by, I glanced quickly over at Eric, expecting to see him flash me his lascivious grin, but I found him deep in conversation with Lev, who was looking decidedly stressed. That didn't worry me, Lev had been stressed for a month. These events were hell on him and the rest of his security staff, the poor guy.

It wasn't clear at a glance what the latest stressor was that had set Lev off, but what was obvious was that Eric hadn't sent me the most recent text. The message had come through on my personal phone so it had to be from a friend or perhaps Corbett contacting me before he went to bed.

The idea made me smile. Jason's kids, Corbett, Finn and Carrie Grace kept me entertained with the funny texts and photos they regularly sent to me from the phones I'd given them this Christmas. Jason felt that Carrie Grace, who was now 11, was a little bit too young for a smartphone but I wanted each of them to always have a way to be in touch and the phone also gave me a way to track them if I needed to find them quickly. I wasn't worried about ignoring a message from them; texts were for fun. If they were in trouble, they knew to call me.

"Give it to me," Pam demanded as she appeared behind me again. I slipped the phone out of my back pocket and handed it to her without breaking my concentration. I'd just found something interesting.

Pam tapped on the screen and I took a few steps away toward the southern facing glass wall, trying to focus on a mind of one of the protesters I'd caught on the far end of the golf course. Since I'd cleared the golf club, I was now checking anyone I could reach. Tilting my head slightly, I pushed through the distance to determine if the horrifying image in his mind was a sick fantasy, a memory or a plan this asshole had yet to set into action.

"Sookie," Pam huffed behind me, but I put a hand up to hold her off for the few seconds it took me to determine that I was seeing a little man's dreams of grandeur that his pathetic and sick mind had created. He was vile but not smart or persistent enough to be a true danger to anyone yet.

I lowered my hand and turned to Pam, relieved to have a reason to give my mind another little break and was met by her irritation as she held my phone in her outstretched hand.

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled when I saw that I hadn't unlocked the screen for her.

"You, Sookie, are too tense. Relax a little tonight; I can promise you won't be able to tomorrow."

"I know," I said, massaging my aching head with both hands and leaving the phone where it was. I felt dirty from the images I'd just seen. "I just don't want to miss anything. This is too important and those protestors are…"

I didn't have a word to describe the blind fanaticism behind the majority of the thoughts surrounding the golf course so I just shook my head.

"I know something's going to happen, Pam," I said earnestly and not for the first time. "I just don't know what or when so I need to make sure that everything is in place. We can't have any surprises."

Pam stared at me, her impassive expression saying nothing and everything at the same time. I knew that she'd been interrupting me, not just for her own entertainment, but to give me a small break. It was her way of showing me she cared, but she certainly wasn't going to gush about it.

"Speaking of everything in its place, when did Jason go back to Hana?" Pam asked while gesturing for a human stocking the bar to bring her a blood.

Her unexpected words and something in her tone, a forced veneer of disinterest perhaps, got my full attention. Ever since Pam had tasted Jason's blood the night Eric's maker met his final death, she'd been interested in my brother.

My mind fully focused on the here and now for the first time in a few hours.

"What?" I demanded, "Why would you think he's in Hana?"

She glanced in Eric's direction and then back to me.

"If you'll unlock your phone as I already asked of you, you'll see Macey's text," she said, shaking the device in front of me.

I snatched the phone from her hand and tapped the dark screen. It came to life, displaying a long line of unread texts. Most were from Eric, but two were from Desmond Cataliades and the last two were from Macey. My eyes caught most of her first message and some of the one below it in the cue but the screen went blank again before I got a chance to read them fully and definitely before I could figure out what in the hell was going on. What I'd read so far had me completely forgetting where I was and what was happening around me.

"No, no, no, no, no…" I mumbled to myself, my thumbs fumbling twice as I frantically tried to enter my ten-digit security code. When I finally got it right, the line of texts popped back up and I clicked on Macey's name and read her messages again, confirming what I'd thought I'd seen the first time.

Macey:_ R u here? Jason's at ur house and he's really sick._

Macey:_ He's getting worse. Weak and confused. Calling Larry._

Jason? Jason was in Hana?

Macey had met Pam, Eric, Sheila and Jason's family when I had everyone out for Christmas and the New Year, so she would recognize him. And Jason knew he had free use of the house anytime he wanted to go, but since he'd begrudgingly admitted that teleporting was preferable to sitting on a plane for hours on end, I was sure he wasn't there.

Jason. Wasn't. There.


	52. Chapter 52

A/N: Thanks for the feedback, it's so amazing to hear from you. The little bits at a time seem to be working to keep me going, so here's another.

Chapter 52 Counterplay

I focused back on the texts and heard a strangled moan escape from what felt like my very soul as the icy fingers of fear crept down my shoulders and into my chest. My knees wobbled and I felt Pam's hand close firmly around my arm. I didn't see her or the rest of the confused audience of vampires and humans who were staring at me; I was too focused on what might be happening thousands of miles away.

No. It wasn't Jason. It couldn't be. So it had to be…

"Oh no. Please, no," I breathed as my chest tightened and my heart began to pound painfully.

I'd go to her. I had to go to her. Right now. I felt my body preparing to teleport but then my mind caught up with me. I couldn't go. Not yet. Every part of me wanted to go to her immediately, to get my precious friend away from this supernatural threat—but I couldn't. One part of my body and soul forced me to stay, to take a more measured approach and the bond told me that he was currently rushing across the room towards me.

A touch of one button on my phone confirmed of my fears when Jason's irritated voice came through from his home phone. I almost hung up, not having the ability to explain myself but then I realized that this could be a bigger problem then I'd thought.

"Get everyone into the safe room and stay there until you hear from one of us," I ordered, incredibly thankful that I'd had a safe room installed at Gran's old house two months ago.

"Aw, fu…" Jason began in his whiny tone I hated, but I didn't hear anymore of it because I hung up and returned to the screen with Macey's texts.

Wrenching my arm out of Pam's grasp, I forced my fingers to fly over the keyboard. I didn't know how he had managed to get to Hana, but I was sure that I knew why he was sick and that Macey was in serious trouble.

Sookie:_ Run! Get away!_

I hit send as quickly as I could. I had to get those three words to her first before I tried any explanation. I could just see her trying to help him and I needed to catch her before he had time to hurt her. If he was moving slower than normal, and I was sure he was, she just might have the chance to get away from him if she acted quickly enough.

Once upon a time, I had trusted him to live in my home and I'd believed him when he told me that he'd been under a spell when he'd participated in the murder of my parents, but right now I didn't have the luxury of giving him the benefit of the doubt. I had to expect the worst, and knowing exactly what that meant from my own personal experiences, the thought of tiny Macey in the hands of the fairies made me sick to my stomach.

I sent a second text, adding a little more explanation to go with my first.

Sookie:_ It's not Jason. Stay away from him. Go home or to the safe room. Keep Larry away. I'll be right there._

I looked up from the phone and locked eyes with Eric, who was standing in front of me with his sword in his hand, fangs out and his blue eyes burning bright with the anticipation of a fight. In fact, the whole room was on high alert and I could sense all the humans swiftly being urged out of the building by Ming and Alex who followed them out to watch with the other guards for any incoming trouble. My reputation for having a built-in early detection system was widely known and well-headed, especially in our small circle.

I opened my mind to Eric, quickly explaining the situation, but I knew that since it was still day in Hana and he hadn't had my blood for two nights, he couldn't come with me. As I was communicating with him, I called multiple iron weapons to my hands and tossed a few of them to Shelia, who had closed in around us like the others.

Eric quickly passed his sword to James and then wrapped his hands around my shoulders, even though he knew that hopes of restraining me in that manner were useless. I'd known this would happen if I hesitated, but I also knew how much I'd upset him when I'd teleported away from him after returning from Britlin and I'd sworn to both of us that I wouldn't do that again. No matter the situation, he deserved to know what was going on, but that didn't mean I'd spend a lot of time discussing the details and arguing with him.

"No." He growled at me when I tilted my head back to look up at him. The force of his thoughts and his influence through the bond had me grimacing.

I didn't say anything out loud, the others were here and I never argued with Eric in front of anyone but Pam. Instead, I turned to my friend. "It's not Jason." I told her, it's Dermot, my fairy great-uncle."

Then I teleported with Eric to a corner of the room so we could talk in private. Hopefully, Pam, having read the texts too, would put the pieces together and let the others know what was going on.

"You're not going," Eric commanded, squeezing me tightly.

"I have to go," I returned emphatically, feeling Macey's time running out with every second that passed. "I will go, Eric. I can't leave her to face this alone."

Eric growled, "Surely you must see that this is a trap designed to draw you there," he stated.

I nodded, and the motion highlighted the fact that my whole body was trembling from a mixture of worry and anger. "Of course it's a trap, Eric. I'm not a fool. Why else would a fairy risk going to Hana? Why else would they have any reason to interact with Macey? There's only one reason-me."

I pushed out of his arms and ran my fingers through my hair in despair. "He's there because of me. Macey is in danger because of her friendship with me. I get it. There's no other reasonable explanation, but it doesn't change anything. I won't abandon her. I'm going."

"I don't care if she's in danger. She has what—thirty more years to live at best. I'm not risking you for that," Eric seethed. "Call the local authorities. I'll call the local Were. You will not put yourself in danger."

I closed my eyes briefly and made one more effort to explain myself despite my frustration at his cruel words. "Eric, she's my family as much as Pam and Jason are. Every minute of her life is valuable. I have to go. There's no other acceptable option for me. I love her," I explained.

"It's too dangerous."

"I'm taking Sheila," I countered.

"You think Sheila will be much help against fairies?" he spat angrily.

"Macey says Dermot's sick. He's only half fairy and he's ill. I don't think any others could be there. They've never managed it before in their long war with the sera fae so I don't see how they could have done it now."

I glanced impatiently over at Shelia and told her with my eyes that we'd be leaving soon. Eric stepped in my line of sight, demanding my attention. "You're basing your safety on theories. I won't accept that. They may have found magical aids to protect themselves."

"Yes, that's true, but it doesn't change anything. I'm going," I said firmly. My time for waiting had run out. "I'll go in as carefully as possible with the only goal being to extract Macey to safety, but I will be going."

Eric's jaw tightened when he saw I couldn't be swayed, even knowing the dangers. He paused a moment and then moved his hands up to the sides of my face. His long fingers threaded into my hair as he gently touched his forehead to mine, all the while continuing to making eye contact. My heart ached at the gesture and I covered his hands with mine.

In that familiar and intimate posture and with his ancient blue eyes boring into mine, I knew he was going to try and influence me so I acted first.

"Please. Please, Eric. I don't want to leave you like this."

"Then don't."

I stepped back and looked toward Sheila, preparing to teleport to her. I'd tried, but I couldn't let any more time pass.

"Take Thalia," Eric suggested quickly, sensing that I was about to leave.

I shook my head. "She can only be in the direct sunlight for a little while, Eric. She won't be able to help."

Eric's eyes lit up and he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He gave it three quick taps and then looked up at me with a grim expression. I glanced down and to my dismay, saw Hunter's name and phone number on the screen.

I looked up at him in horror but he glared back, challenging me. For a second we had a Mexican standoff. If I chose to leave, Eric would pull his trigger and Hunter might pay the price as he rushed to my side.

At first I was hurt that Eric would involve Hunter in this, but then I realized that I wasn't giving him any other choice. By taking this decision out of his hands, I'd forced him to look at the only options left. Reluctantly, I admitted to myself that I understood his motivation even as I hated the possible outcome of his actions.

My anxiety level ratcheted up another notch as I contemplated my options, but found that there was only one. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try. I had to do this and do it quickly. I had to get her out of there before Hunter could arrive. Even though Hunter was now very capable of defending himself, there was no way I could allow him to get involved in this mess.

I maintained eye contact with Eric as I gestured for Sheila to join us.

"I understand why you have to do that. Can you accept what I have to do?" I asked, desperately wanting his support.

Eric's jaw tightened again. His turmoil was obvious through the bond and in his blue eyes. He moved his hands so they were resting around my lower back and neck and pulled me to him. A second later, a wave of brutal ruthlessness washed over me, quashing any feelings of fear and guilt that had been emanating from my heart.

I readily accepted what he had to give me and felt his influence work its way though my body. It wasn't so different from the majority of my emotions. I was already determined that I would do this. I would destroy whatever or whoever threatened my friend if that was what was required of me.

Shelia arrived and shifted impatiently next to us, eager to know what was going on and a moment later, Eric released me, running his fingers lightly down my cheek. His expression was fierce, but I felt his concern and love clearly enough through the bond. A moment later, he took a small step back and nodded stiffly. A knot relaxed deep in my chest.

I took his hands in mine and kissed his neck, but I refused to do anything that might signify that this was more than a momentary parting. I couldn't think about the risks from an emotional perspective anymore, I had to keep focused on what I needed to do.

His fingers briefly twined in my hair again but when I stepped away, he let me go. As I reached out my hand to grasp Sheila's wrist, I whispered to him, "Thank you. I love you."

"I know," he said and then he pushed the call button on his phone.


	53. Chapter 53

A/N: Here we go...

Chapter 53 Check

After looking at Eric one more time, I took Sheila and I directly to the safe room on my property in Hana. From this position I could determine if this threat was real and if so, take a moment to try and discern just how many minds were here. While the safe room was designed to keep vampires out and so had silver mixed with the metal on the outside, the inside was sure to have iron in it. That thought gave me a little bit of hope that we would have at least a few seconds before having to act.

Even though we had this thin barrier from whatever might be out there, I was definitely wishing now that I'd had the house warded when I'd had the chance. But with our absolute conviction that fairies couldn't come here at all, we'd foolishly determined that a ward wasn't necessary.

Hindsight's a bitch sometimes.

I closed my eyes in the dark room and focused. Two minds. I released a breath I'd been holding. Macey was safe and unhurt, but there was another mind with her. The fact that I could only read her thoughts confirmed my theory regarding the identity of the other even though I'd never really had even a moment of doubt. Dermot was here, but just because I couldn't sense any others didn't mean they weren't nearby.

Sheila hissed in my ear and opening my eyes, I saw that I was glowing brightly and that the carpet under my feet was beginning to singe. I took a long overdue breath and forced myself to calm down. Losing control was not going to help anyone. Once I was in full control of myself, I focused in on watching the events through Macey's eyes, making sure that I allowed Sheila to see everything as well.

Sheila tensed next to me as Macey looked into Dermot's pale face and then she, too, took a deep, steadying breath and rolled her shoulders to loosen her muscles.

The last time we'd fought with fairies in the basement of the headquarters, Sheila and James had been wounded and I'd nearly been killed thanks to my own stupidity that led to me removing my helmet a few minutes too early. In the end, we'd triumphed, but we'd had ample help that time and if fairies could come to Hana, who could guess what other types of magic they had working on their side. I knew very little about fairy magic except for the few abilities I had developed, but using those against a full-blooded fairy would be like using a plastic sword against the one I now carried in my hand. We had to be prepared for anything.

I was acutely aware that I'd put Sheila in a very bad and dangerous situation by bringing her with me, but I also knew she wouldn't have had it any other way so I didn't feel guilty, only responsible. I did wish that I could have brought Thalia as Eric had suggested. The temptation was even stronger because she was already at the headquarters with the other Sheriffs getting ready for the meeting tomorrow night, but that wasn't an option, so Sheila and I would do this together.

Once I was sure I could only detect two minds, we carefully crept out of the safe house. We moved slowly, continually assessing the situation with each small step. From our new position, I could see Macey's bike on the grass where she always left it. The sight of her bright white basket adorned with yellow and pink plumerias spoke of her innocence and reignited my anger, momentarily breaking my focus on assuring our safety.

Thankfully, no one took advantage of my slip and once I gave myself a mental slap, I was able to continue scanning our surroundings while moving closer and reaching out for Macey's mind again. I did wonder why Macey wasn't on her bike, riding away to safety right now. That's what I told her to do in my texts. She was unhurt and only moderately anxious, so maybe she hadn't had time to read them or react yet seeing as though only a minute or two had passed since I sent them.

Macey wasn't thinking about getting away or begin in danger at all. No, she was intently focused on caring for the prostrate and unresponsive man on my patio; her gentle heart ached with pity for him. She had no fear of him at all. The next moment, as the words of my texts flew through her mind, she clicked her tongue, huffed and decided that she was right to completely disregard my frantic warnings.

Classic Macey. She'd never turn her back on someone who needed her even if they were dangerous or unusual.

That was one of the things I loved and treasured most about her, but right now, I cursed the very same trait that allowed her to accept and love me. Hypocritical? Yes. But that trait could get her killed, or at the very least, pulled into whatever scheming the fairies were planning.

"Stay here," I mouthed to Sheila.

"Like hell I will," she answered back in a sharp whisper, grabbing my arm with an iron grasp.

I turned to look at her. "I have to get Macey away from him and you need to keep an eye out for others so we can get out of here right away if we need to. I can't do both."

She glared at me for a long moment and then she blinked. "Then hurry the fuck up, Stackhouse," she spat at me in a silent rage as she let go of my arm and began scanning the area again.

I peeked back at Macey. She was ringing out a washcloth and mopping the forehead of the blond haired man at her knees.

I held my breath, waiting for the moment when she was no longer touching him. At the first opportunity, I teleported directly to her, grabbed her around her waist and teleported her back to our hiding spot with my hand placed over her mouth. She fought me for a moment until she realized who I was and then she turned and gave me a tight hug.

Now that I had her in my arms, I could see that her face was pale and her pupils were dilated with fear. Her body was scared even though her mind didn't have enough good sense to realize it. I held her close, so very grateful that she was a safe distance away from Dermot and relatively unscathed.

"It's okay, Macey," I said in a relieved whisper as Sheila kept her eyes on our apparently unconscious foe. "But you need to be very quiet and get home as quickly as possible," I instructed her with my eyes conveying to her how serious I was.

"But…"

"No, Macey. That's not Jason. This guy is seriously dangerous."

Macey's wide eyes looked at Sheila and I more carefully, taking in our weapons and Sheila's aggressive stance. Slowly her color improved as an expression of appalled disappointment broke through her fear. She'd just realized that we weren't here on a mission of mercy or at least that our mercy was reserved only for her, not him.

"What will you do? He's not going to hurt anyone. Look at him, he's ill. He's hardly moved at all since I got here except to try and find you," she whispered in a voice ripe with accusation.

I tried to ignore the shame I felt from her censure but I didn't fully succeed. She was disappointed in me. Disappointed that I would approach a sick man with weapons. Disappointed that unlike her husband Larry, I wouldn't treat the malady despite the character of the man.

She didn't understand the situation and I couldn't take the time to explain it to her; my only priority here was to get her away as quickly as possible even if I pissed her off in the process. I'd teleport her home if I were willing to leave Sheila's side again, but I wasn't. I couldn't be sure Dermot was alone. And I couldn't bear the idea of glamouring or influencing Macey unless things really got out of hand.

Macey continued to stare at me with her sad blue eyes and the chasm that existed between the human world I'd tried to fit into and my world grew by a mile in that moment.

It was something I would simply have to accept and clearly it was for the best since I'd already put her at risk. This was one of the reasons I always tried to keep her away from this side of my life; it was too hard, too ugly and far too dangerous.

Letting her officially meet Eric and Pam and see me teleport my niece and nephews as we played games over Christmas had been one thing. She'd always known that I was different, but that was as close to my reality as I could ever let her get. Maybe I'd even let her get too close for her own good. It had been a selfish choice on my part, wanting all my family to be together and I was regretting it now.

I released a tense breath when Larry's car came into view, speeding down the road and then turned noisily onto the driveway. I stepped into view and motioned for him to stop where he was and then turned back to Macey, who was still looking at me and waiting for an answer.

"He's my great-uncle. Larry wouldn't be able to help him. I'll take care of him," I answered, trying to inflect my voice with concern that I didn't feel for my great uncle. I wasn't very successful. Macey looked at me dubiously as I put my hand on her back and urged her to Larry's car. He was already out and had started moving quickly towards us.

"Stop him. Please, Macey. It's too dangerous here for either of you," I begged.

She didn't move and I nearly lost it when I saw her eyes glimmer with tears. There wasn't time for this. She had to get out of here now! It wasn't safe and Hunter could get here any minute. I was actually surprised that he hadn't arrived yet.

Macey pulled me into another tight hug and didn't let go. "I miss you so much and I worry about you all the time. Is this…is this really the life you want? Is he worth it?" she asked timidly as she leaned back to look at me again, blinking back her tears.

No. Of course I didn't want a life of danger and constant worry, but…

"Yes. He is." I answered firmly, pressing my hand on her back again.

She nodded but continued her whispers while digging her heels into the ground to slow our progression. "But I thought that you were no longer in any danger. Over Christmas, you introduced us to Eric, Pam and Pua's friend, Mr…"

I shook my head frantically and put my fingers to her lips, still leading her to the car. She couldn't talk about Mr. Cataliades anywhere near a fairy. Mr. Cataliades was still working with Queen Wu under the pretense that he had broken off all ties with Eric and according to him, Niall had been seen meeting with Wu. If Wu ever found out he was a mole, she'd find a way to kill the demon.

Concern tickled the back of my brain as I remembered that he had sent me two texts tonight that I hadn't yet read. Maybe he'd had foreknowledge of these events and had been trying to warn me.

"With or without Eric, I'll always be in danger. It's just my life, Macey. But I don't want to live without him anymore."

She gave me a little smile and shook her head. "You never did. I just wanted to be sure." She took a few independent steps toward Larry, gesturing for him to return to his car and then turned back to me.

"Be careful," she mouthed silently.

Then she stopped again and ran back over to me causing my last nerve to fray. I swallowed the urge to scream at her to leave, just freaking leave, but I forced myself to listen when she spoke.

"He's scared and in pain and so very sad. I think he's really worried about you. Every time I mentioned your name, he got even more upset. And it was worry, not anger that he was feeling, so please be gentle with him," she begged.

"You can feel him?" I gasped, completely shocked. I couldn't even get a basic read on his thoughts.

She nodded. "That's why I stopped here. I was biking to town when I felt his pain."

This didn't add up. I could understand why he was scared and hurting, but sad? I didn't get it.

"Thanks, Macey. Now go. Please. And stay away from here until you hear from me." She nodded and then finally ran to Larry's car.

While we waited for them to back down the long driveway and onto the main road, I banished my bulky clothing and called a pair of skin-tight shorts and a sports tank to me. Then I called the tiny particles of the land that formed my armor and helmet. I was caught off guard when, without making any effort to draw it, energy rushed into my body as though the land knew I was in need. Perhaps she did.

I was well fortified in the blink of an eye and with a quick nod to Sheila, we went back to inching towards the patio the next second. I silently offered to call some armor for Shelia to use, but she refused, wanting to have her full range of motion so she could shift if needed. I didn't like that she was exposed, but I understood her reasoning and knew that she would take batter care of herself now that I was well protected.

As we moved quickly but carefully, Eric's voice rang in the back of my mind, urging me to simply leave my unexpected guest where he was and let nature take its course. It's what I should have done, but Macey's words had intrigued me and I was drawn to him, not having seen him for so many years. Of all my extended fairy family, with the exception of Claudine, he was the one whose love for me had seemed the most pure, probably because he was so childlike in nature.

Even more than that, I needed to see what had brought him here and how. We had always believed that fairies weren't able to survive on this land because of the high iron content so if our theories were wrong and Eric, Hunter and I weren't safe here, we had to be aware of it.

We came within a few steps of him and my breath caught as I gazed down at the man who looked so much like my brother. He was even dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt so the only things that differentiated him from Jason were the gentle age lines that Jason had acquired over the years. Dermot actually looked younger than I remembered with his beautiful face relaxed and his body limply propped up on two cushions from nearby chairs. I sent up a silent prayer of thanks to whoever might be listening that Macey hadn't been harmed before I got here, but just like she said, Dermot looked anything but threatening right now.

There was no way I would trust that impression, but my emotions were less focused now that Macey was safe. Sympathy and caution warred with one another and I deliberately bit my cheek, not hard enough to draw blood but definitely enough to keep me focused. I couldn't allow any distraction; I needed to use my head rather than my heart in this situation. I concentrated on the self-inflicted pain, found the ruthlessness I needed and pulled upon it like a lifeline to keep me grounded and focused on our survival. Even though it was important that I figure out what was going on with Dermot, my primary responsibility was to ensure that I got back to Eric. I was already pushing the limits by remaining here even a minute longer than absolutely necessary.

Sheila and I both twitched when Dermot shifted slightly, causing the wet blue cloth Macey had draped around his neck to fall to the ground with a plop.

"Too bad she didn't give him some lemonade," Sheila whispered into my ear, her hatred for the man before her evident in the caustic tone of her voice.

I should have agreed with her, my survival instincts demanded it of me, but although I was distrustful of him, I simply couldn't muster any hatred for him.

I glanced at Sheila, deciding to ignore her remark, and after receiving a nod of agreement, I spoke out loud, attempting to arouse him with just my voice.

"Dermot!"

It worked. His eyes fluttered open and focused on me.

"Niece," he breathed in a weak but relieved voice, "you made it."

"Ah...yeah?" I said, unsure of how to respond to this unexpected statement. I stepped forward, wanting to be nearer to him to read his expressions better, but Sheila crowded my side as she faced away from us to watch our backs, silently cueing me not to get any closer.

Dermot's dark blue eyes scanned over me with a wistful expression. "You are…as beautiful as they said, but…I wish you had remained the way you were before," my half-fairy, great-uncle said sadly.

"What the hell?" Sheila scoffed from behind me, "Maybe iron poisoning is like lead poisoning and that's why he thinks you'd give a rat's ass what you look like right now. Fucking narcissistic fairies."

She was right, at least about the first part of her rant, but not about the second. I didn't think he was lamenting how I looked, but what I was. We had been family before and now we were enemies simply because of my genetic make-up.

While I agreed that our status as blood enemies was unfortunate, it didn't explain why he was in my backyard or anywhere near Macey.

"Why are you here?" I demanded, trying to get to the truly important points so I could get home to Eric.

"You have to know…" he paused, swallowed and tried to sit up straighter against the pillows. His weak efforts were wasted.

"Know what?" I asked when his pause continued for too long. He might not be in a rush, but I was.

"All is not well in Faery."

"Like you give a fuck," Sheila muttered.

"You went back to Faery?" I asked, ignoring Sheila and frowning down at Dermot. He nodded. "But I thought Niall cursed you. Why would you have gone back?" I asked, absolutely shocked that he would have returned. I hadn't even been sure that he could go back being that he was half-human. Fairies weren't known for having open arms and minds when it came to half-bloods.

He gave a small grimace, "There are so few of us…they even wanted me for a while since I have Niall's blood. They are coming for you now."

Sheila growled, but I put my hand on her arm to calm her.

"Who do you mean by 'they'? Niall?" I questioned and then shook my head in denial before he could answer, "No. Niall knows I want to be left alone."

"Yes," Dermot returned despondently, "Niall received the message you sent with Preston. He now fears that you have changed too much. He believes the great-granddaughter that he knew would not turn her back on him as you have done. He thinks you have become too much scrios in your heart and that is why you have not contacted him."

"He attacked us! Fairies tried to kill and kidnap me. I'd be a fool to go to him after that," I said incredulously.

Dermot frowned uncertainly. "He said he was trying to save you from the vampires when he attacked the headquarters."

"I don't believe that was his true motivation," I said, clenching my teeth together. "What exactly does he want from me anyway?"

Dermot looked lost. "He…believes you can help us. The full-blooded fairies are dying and we cannot mate successfully anymore with one another. Our kind has reached an end."

"And he thinks I can help them? How?" I asked, finding myself at a total loss as to what I could do to help a dying race. It's not as though I could personally continue their line, I'd stopped having that kind of fertility when I lost my humanity and I was sure Niall was aware of that fact. He was one who knew his enemies well.

Dermot reached out for me with a shaky hand and when I did not reciprocate, he let it fall limply to his lap again.

"I haven't learned exactly what he thinks you can do for us, but you mustn't do it, for whatever it is, he knows it will be the cause of your end too. And this, I do not want for you." He shook his head sadly as he said the last few words.

"But Niall wants it." I countered angrily. This bit of information confirmed Eric's suspicions once and for all and I was surprised that the knowledge didn't hurt me even the slightest bit. I'd known my great-grandfather had wanted me dead for a while now.

"He says he does not and I believe him," Dermot said, disagreeing with me ardently. "He cared for you. But he sees no other way."

"I don't get how killing me is going to help the fairies. They're dying off on their own. I didn't cause it and I don't plan on bringing any trouble to them unless they attack me or mine first. I told Niall this already."

"It's more than that. I don't know how, but it is. You must believe me. Niall has focused on little but finding you and then trying to get you to come to him since you disappeared."

"What are you suggesting I do?" Whatever he said, I would not be contacting Niall.

"Stay here. They're coming for you tonight. That's why I wanted you here where it's safe."

"What?" I stepped towards him a little, my heart rate increasing slightly. "What do you mean they're coming for me tonight?"

Sheila tensed even more next to me.

"Don't worry, you're safe here. They don't know where you are and they can't survive here more than a second or two."

Shit. Dermot had wanted me here and I'd walked right into his hands. It was a different kind of trap than I'd expected, but a trap all the same.

I blinked, two...three times as slowly, much too slowly, the true horror of the situation came to me as I pieced together what he was really saying.

"Hold on…they're coming for me tonight?" My chest tightened sickeningly with anxiety. "They don't know I left so they're going to where I should be? They're attacking tonight? Right now?"

I looked between Sheila and Dermot desperately, my heart pounding with the realization of what Dermot was telling me.

My voice had risen in pitch and volume as I spoke and I was glowing brightly in the early dusk. "They won't waste their time attacking the headquarters. They'll know exactly where I should be right now, they've probably known our schedule for weeks since the event's been so publicized!"

"Fuck! The spy you found at the last event was probably sent by them. That's why she didn't know anything about the Fellowship." Sheila's eyes began to turn yellow and her face altered slightly as she fought the urge to shift.

Eric! Pam! The fairies would attack them, expecting to find me. We'd only been gone about five minutes, but they might be fighting them right now.

"Let's go!" Sheila demanded as she grabbed onto my arm. "We have to get back before they leave the warded events building. They're safe so long as they stay inside, but once they leave…"

She didn't have to say any more. I knew what it would mean if they left. They could be attacked by the fairies at any point.

The patrols around the periphery of the golf course, that I'd originally thought of as ample, would be useless against a fairy who teleported directly outside the events hall in the middle of the golf course. Now the isolation we'd once found so desirable might be coming back to bite us in the ass.

Dermot lunged forward as much as he was able, panting with the effort the move cost him.

"No, Sookie! You can't go back. Niall has been planning this for months. They didn't move until they were assured an easy victory. He wouldn't take the risk of further loss if he thought they'd face any true opposition. You will not be able to save your lover and you will lose your own life in the process."

"I don't give a shit!" I yelled at him, having only heard his last few words in my stunned mind.

I would stop this. I had to stop this. Comared to this, my worry about Macey had been nothing. Macey is my friend but Eric is my life.

"Don't go. Don't go back." Dermot pleaded but I ignored him, taking a few steps back as he tumbled weakly in my direction. "Niece, I am your family, your blood. Fintan was my brother. Claude wants nothing to do with me anymore and I can't go back to Faery. You are the only one I have left. Stay here where it's safe. Don't throw your life away."

He didn't say the words, but I knew he was telling me not to risk myself to save a vampire and I lost the fragile hold I had on my emotions. The ground cracked beneath my feet as I saw red and with a roar, I shot a blast of fire one foot to the right of Dermot's position. Dermot rolled farther away and my blast destroyed a table and the pillows he had been leaning against moments before.

He'd taken me away from Eric when he knew an attack was on its way. I didn't care why he'd done it, all that mattered was that Eric was in danger and he was down two fighters when facing fairies.

"If anything…" I seethed, but I couldn't force the rest of the words out. I couldn't even imagine the possibility that something could happen to Eric.

I called more iron weapons to my hands and thrust the extras at Sheila, giving each of us a supple leather belt holding daggers and throwing stars. I also handed her a squirt gun full of lemon juice and put another just like it in the waistband of my pants under my armor.

Just before I left, I had another idea that had me stopping in my tracks and glancing back at Dermot who had pulled himself up against the side of my favorite wooden Adirondack chair.

"Will Niall be there? Would he stop this if I agreed to talk with him?" I questioned Dermot frantically. Sheila tugged on my arm, growling angrily.

Dermot bit his lip and closed his eyes, his face ripe with grief. "He believes the time for talking is over. Now he will do whatever he feels is necessary to achieve his goals."

My heart sank even further.

"The fucker is going to use the others as leverage against you," Sheila spat. "You can't give him what he wants, Sookie. No matter what he does. Eric would lose it if you risked yourself and you know it."

I turned to her; absolutely furious that she of all people would be encouraging caution in this situation. "Are you saying I should stay here?" I seethed. "Because if you are…"

"Hell no," she returned quickly after taking three quick steps back from me, holding both hands up warily. "Hey, save the freaky fae shit for the fairies," she warned. "Just be ready for his tricks if he gets the upper hand."

"It's not going to come to that," I reassured myself. "Are you sure you're ready for this?" I asked; having a very good idea as to the nightmare I was about to take her into.

"Fuck, yeah," she retorted as she fastened the weapons belt around her waist and gave me a vicious grin. I returned the expression, feeling everything slip away but a single-minded and bloodthirsty determination to destroy everything threatening my friends and my love.

I'd warned Niall to stay away.

"Sookie, wait…" was all I heard Dermot say before I teleported Sheila and I right to Eric's side.

When we arrived a split-second later, we stepped into the middle of a war zone.


	54. Chapter 54

A/N: I promise to get the next chapters out very quickly, the next two are almost ready to post! Thanks for all your great support from last chapter, you all really keep me going.

Chapter 54 Middlegame

When we arrived a split-second later, we stepped into the middle of a war zone.

You hear the words all the time…after a tornado, a hurricane or a terrible crash but this was a true war zone complete with wreckage, bodies and violence being wrought in every direction.

I'm not new to battles, I've seen Were-wars, witch-wars, fairy-wars, vampire-wars and was in the middle of a hotel when it was blown up by humans. So you'd probably think I would be pretty much desensitized to battles at this point.

You could think that, but you'd be wrong. Especially here and now when my love, my life, my future was fighting for his very existence and that of his beloved child.

The very second Sheila and I arrived; we were forced into the fray. There was no time to stop and assess the situation except to feel through the bond that Eric was unhurt and since his emotions were centered on his opponents, I knew Pam had escaped injury too. I felt Eric's relief when he sensed my arrival and found I could breathe again. This is where I should be—fighting at his side.

Before I even had a chance to look for Eric, something flashed in the corner of my eye, just barely appearing in my peripheral vision. Instinct had me turning and raising my sword to block the blow. The blade crashed into mine and then another came at me from over my left shoulder. I spun around blocking the second attack.

My muscles ached from the impacts and it was immediately clear that even Will had been holding back when he fought me in practice. I yelled with the effort, but held my own, quickly settling into a pattern of fighting against multiple attackers. They kept me busy long enough that I didn't notice just who I was fighting; all I saw were weapons and the hands wielding them. That was until Sheila silently slid into view and stabbed her dagger into the neck of the taller of my two opponents and rather than collapsing from the iron, he roared and turned his fury on her.

That was not a fairy.

For the first time, I looked into the face and mind of my remaining foe and found a viciously delighted vampire. His smug smile grew upon seeing my confusion as I realized what was really happening.

"Nice of you to finally join the pre-party for my Queen's inaugural celebration," he snarled as he struck again, "We hoped you'd be here."

Wu! Vampires, not fairies, were the cause of all this mayhem.

For some reason, this knowledge made me furious and my anger completely replaced the worry I'd been feeling. I spun, ducked his sword and got close enough to brush a finger across his side. A small push of power was all I used and my attacker imploded in a puff of dust. A dark satisfaction that I was totally unaccustomed to settled somewhere in my stomach.

I dropped into a defensive crouch and scanned around what had once been a beautifully appointed room. My eyes at first focused only upon that which I desperately needed to see. Eric and Pam. They were both fighting two opponents and were unhurt. In fact, they appeared to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. That's all I needed to see in the first second and then I was free to survey the rest of the room.

James too was holding his own and I could hear Will's mind on the other side of the room. He had cloaked his body but not his mind. Smart.

I identified a handful of our guards who had been stationed on the roof of the building. Most of them were clustered around a grouping of Wu's vampires who, to my surprise, were surrounding Wu herself. Felipe had not joined Victor when he took over Louisiana, but Wu was apparently a more hands-on kind of monarch.

Wu stood out, not only for her trademark bright blue and orange suit, but also because of the fact that she alone, in this room filled with frenetic movement, was absolutely still. She was an island, surrounded by at least ten bodyguards who were holding off our guards. She appeared calm and completely unruffled by the blood and body parts that were flying by her.

I glared at her, anger and hatred ripping though my chest with an intensity I'd never felt before. As though she could sense my gaze, her eyes flicked over to meet mine and I growled as a pleased, self-assured smile crossed her broad face. That one look alone made me want to rip her head off but it was the image of Niall's face flashing in her mind that told me I had to kill her and now.

I smiled back, a feral and ugly smile I'm sure and then, just to piss her off, I tapped into the minds of her vampires. It took me about five seconds, but I managed to force at least a fifth of them to pause for just a moment. It was all my team needed to strike down a large number of our foes.

Wu's eyes widened when so many fell around her and I took off, running towards her, striking at anyone in my way with my sword or a small burst of energy. I'd get close enough and then take out the entire unit surrounding her. It would be easy and it would feel so very good.

I sent out a silent message to our group to move to the side and credited the guards with quick reactions for doing so rather than questioning why. We'd never explained that I could communicate telepathically with vampires to anyone but our inner circle.

Once they were clear, I took three more running steps toward Wu, unleashed a line of fire that took out two of her vampires and then turned towards Wu herself.

Wu bared her fangs, growling at me as I slid my sword into my weapon's belt to free both hands for my attack. I wasn't going to risk missing her. Gathering my power together, I took one more breath and nearly fell over when I felt a discordant tug within the bond demanding that I stop what I was doing.

My body reacted as though someone had thrown a stick into a bike wheel or slammed on the brakes. What the hell was happening? Eric would never interfere when I was so close to ending Wu unless something was terribly wrong. Someone must be in my way. I must be about to endanger one of our people!

I skidded to a halt and tried to pull myself together and stop the outflow of energy that I'd recruited and that was about to explode from my hands. To make matters worse, Eric was rushing towards me and putting himself in even more danger.

I clenched my fists, bent over and pressed my hands into my stomach, using everything I had to calm myself down. I knew I'd won when a huge tremor ran through my body and I could breathe again. When I could stand up straight again, Eric was at my side, warding off Wu's vampires. I saw myself in his mind and for a moment I was reminded of the portrait of Pele that hung in Pua's home.

Eric slowly held one hand out in front of himself and then he very carefully ran his fingertips over my arm in a calming gesture.

"What?" I demanded through still clenched teeth, pulling my sword out of my belt and looking back at Wu with longing.

"You cannot use unrestrained fire here. Look," he said, gesturing towards Wu.

"I don't…"

"Look," he said again firmly as he struck out at a male who had been sneaking closer to us, "at the red containers."

I gasped and my mind cleared when I saw what he was talking about. "You've got to be kidding me-"

"No."

I clenched my teeth together and looked back at Wu. The cowardly bitch had surrounded herself with gasoline to deter me from using fire near her, but she hadn't come up with this idea on her own.

"This is Niall's doing," I seethed.

"I agree. And she was looking for you when she first arrived."

I glanced back over at Wu, searching for the best angle to approach her from but Eric placed his hand on my arm again.

"Don't go to her," he said quickly when he saw the look on my face. "There are too many defending her position. You might not get out without injury. This armor is not infallible. Use your powers carefully. If you hit one of those containers and it explodes…" I raised my eyebrows. No shit. That would be very bad. Vampires were extremely flammable. "We'll work our way to her from the outside. We've already cut down her forces by a fifth. Have patience."

"But…" I began, as my adrenaline began to fade.

"Don't. Don't let the bloodlust go, just focus it in the right direction," he said as he pushed me behind him, took a long stride forward and cleaved an oncoming male in half.

Okay. I reset my mental plan. We'd work our way in from the outside.

In the few more seconds I had to assess the situation further, I estimated that there were at least a dozen bodies flaking on the floor, one of which I was sure was Lev by the sight of his trademark gray Izod shirt which was now covered in his blood and dust.

Alex, Ming, Maeve and her guard, Don were nowhere to be seen and neither were the other guards who had been stationed on the grounds around the building. The wards were still up so Don must have been able to get Maeve to safety before the assault began. The rest of our guards may have been part of the carnage on the floor, but my gut instinct was that most of them had never made it to the door before Wu's vampires got to them.

Pam, Eric and James were almost blurs in my vision as they grappled and clashed with groups of Wu's vampires. Some still had weapons while others simply used their hands and fangs.

After gutting the vampire she'd stabbed, Sheila hadn't waited for me to give her silver weapons. She took off running the very next second to fight a burly male. Will then made his presence known when a vampire who Pam had been fighting had his arm ripped off by unseen hands. Instead of sickening me, the sight fed my bloodlust and desire to destroy our enemy.

I took one more moment to look back at Wu and returned her smile, giving her my silent promise that she'd be meeting her final death tonight. Then I dropped my iron sword and threw my dagger into the nearest vampire's back, severing his spine. Eric grinned at me as I called silver weapons to my hands instead.

The next second, Eric ducked as a dagger flew over his head, just barely missing him. I searched through the crowd to identify who had thrown the weapon and found her right away.

I called the dagger from the air, teleported to her and finished her. By the time Eric stood back up, having sliced the back of a thin male's knees as he ducked, I was back by his side.

He glanced at me and then at the female's body. We watched together as what was left of her crumbled away on the ground, the dagger she'd thrown at Eric still sunk deeply in her chest and what was left of her body was blackened with a horrible burn.

Eric reveled in my ruthlessness. This was how he'd always wanted me to fight. He wanted me to be absolutely focused and to take no pity on my enemies. I could do it now, because people I loved were in danger, and I was sure this was just the beginning of our fight.

We continued to defend ourselves. Eric dominated with sheer strength and speed. I teleported from spot to spot, making sure to never leave his side by more than ten feet. Neither of us was willing to be separated from the other by the melee of vampires who leapt, ran and rolled around the room, breaking tables, chairs and glassware as they went. Bits of wood and glass sailed through the air like the deadly pieces of shrapnel that they were.

I crashed my blade into that of a short, broad male and then jumped to avoid the blade of another, while incapacitating the male with a long slice across his chest. Eric grinned at me as he eviscerated him and then beheaded the other with his bare hands. We had only a moment before two more replaced them, eager to follow their comrades to their death. They were fools to follow Wu to their own slaughter.

When we finished with those two, Eric swooped down on me, wrapped his bloody hands around my head and kissed me hard. I returned the kiss, wrapped the fingers of my free hand in his hair and gave a sharp pull. I shared in his bloodlust but I couldn't share his joy. Eric pulled back and ran his thumb over my cheek, probably rubbing away blood from my face.

"We will defeat Wu," he stated confidently. "We would have done so even if you hadn't returned when you did. She has lost many already." He waited until I nodded. "But be prepared, I am sure that she has even stronger reserves."

He then turned away to engage a female who'd tried to sneak up on us while we were distracted, but he was too fast. She lost her hand and when she tried to get away, she lost her life.

When Eric looked at me again, I whispered just loud enough for him to hear. "There's more to this, Eric. The fairies are involved somehow."

His good humor faded slightly as he contemplated my words. He'd already known that Niall had given Wu tips on defending against me, but I was sure they were here in some capacity.

"You're probably right. Do you sense them?" he asked, looking out into the inky blackness.

"No. But I can't hear anything beyond these walls, not even the protestors out there and Dermot warned me that the fairies were coming tonight."

I looked out into the dark night. If the fairies were out there, my presence here ensured that they would join the fight at some point.

Eric grabbed me by my face again, his good humor fading completely.

"Don't even think about it, Sookie. Our wards still stand so even if the fairies are out there, they can't come in. Wu has also managed to place her own magical force around the building that has blocked our communication outside these walls." Ah, that explained why I wasn't hearing anything from the surrounding area. "Unfortunately, it also functions to hold us in here," he said angrily.

"Oh my God," I whispered, horrified at the thought of them being trapped in here while I was in Hana.

Eric gestured towards the southward facing doorway, "That's how we lost Lev," he growled. "Wu has been known to work closely with witches in the past."

And fairies too.

"I shouldn't have come back here. I should draw them away from you." I shouldn't have, but I couldn't leave him or the others like this. Not only was I a capable fighter, I was the only one who could get them out if we needed to run.

He narrowed his eyes but he could tell from my words and emotions that I would be seeing this through to the end.

"I need you here," he said, holding me tighter. "I need you to be smart, fast and ruthless."

I nodded and pushed away all my fears and doubts.

He gave me one more kiss and then we broke apart to defend against more oncoming attacks and before long we moved from defensive postures to offensive and began making our way towards Wu.

Soon I was dripping with sweat and the floor was slick with blood and ashes from both sides. Only two of our guards remained and we had killed at least two-thirds of Wu's original force. We should have been clearing out the room, but it was still crowded and each of us was still battling multiple enemies. Eric had obviously been right about Wu having backups.

I scanned around the room, trying to figure out where they were coming from. Nothing I was able to catch from anyone's thoughts helped me figure it out; they were too focused on their individual battles to look at the big picture.

My eyes swept past one of the four sets of doors just as a vampire I hadn't seen before sped in and barreled towards James. I momentarily took my attention off the battle to listen more carefully for minds outside the building. It was risky to let myself be this distracted but we had to know how many more might be congregated outside, waiting to join the fight. I found only one more who was just now entering through the east doors, but then, not ten seconds later, another appeared from the south.

My chest tightened. Any number of vampires and/or fairies could be congregated out there, just waiting for the right time to come in and overwhelm us. For an instant, I was tempted to teleport outside, but decided against it after a moment of thought, realizing that to do so would probably be a deadly mistake.

I got Eric's attention but he had already come to the same conclusions. This was probably what he'd been telling me earlier, but I'd been unable to accept the reality of the bigger picture. For every vampire we defeated, another entered through one of the four sets of doors around the large room. We weren't making any headway after all and we wouldn't until her backups ran out. In fact, even though we were besting them in each individual fight, we were losing the battle because they replaced each fallen fighter whereas our number was only getting smaller.

In this moment of realization, my bloodlust began to fade and I skipped right past guilt and worry and settled into a deep feeling of fear. Eric thought that the Sheriffs and guards he'd left at the headquarters might be joining the fight, but we both knew that they wouldn't be able to get into the building.

I connected telepathically to my team again and tried to get them off to one side so I could safely use a larger attack with fire away from the gasoline, but our foes seemed to be expecting this too and kept us well scattered around the room. Instead, I relied on my sword and carefully timed short bursts of energy to stop the oncoming attacks.

In time, my hands were hot and my arms vibrated from the clash of metal on metal. Eric and I were working back to back as were Sheila and James. Pam appeared to be alone, but she had the invisible assistance of Will who struck like a deadly wind. The one remaining guard was still trying to get to Wu, but she was easily overcome by a pack of Wu's bodyguards. We were strong fighters, well trained and skilled, but in the face of the sheer numbers of our opponents, we were faltering.

Suddenly, I felt a dull pain coming through the bond. That sensation was nothing compared to the flash of worry that interrupted Eric's laser sharp focus. His gaze fixed solely on Pam whose left arm was hanging at her side, her pink cashmere sweater tattered and bloody. The injury itself was not fatal but she was now terribly vulnerable.

Eric tore his eyes from Pam and looked at me. I made an extra effort to handle my two attackers and yelled through clenched teeth, "Go, Eric!"

He paused one more moment, not wanting to leave me alone and then pulled a dagger out of a flaking body on the floor and threw it at one of my foes.

"Thanks," I said as the big male stumbled and fell to the floor, "now, go!"

It was hard for him to leave my side, but he did. His child needed him. Pam was fighting with her left hand, using one of her daggers but her precious blood was still seeping into her pink sleeve and running down her leg. James was trying to defend her, but he was outnumbered and had healing slices down his face and shoulder and one on his back.

A moment later, out of the corner of my eye, I watched in horror as Sheila pulled a bloody dagger from her side and threw it at an oncoming vampire. The shifter took two more steps and fell to her knees where she continued to wreak havoc by aiming her throwing stars at passing vampires.

Eric made it to Pam's side, caressed her face for a split second and then he and James were able to create a berth a few feet wide between Pam and the fighting. Eric spotted an easy kill, snapped his neck and gave him to his child to drink from. She drew a few mouthfuls and Eric's worry decreased. Pam was healing and her injured arm was responding jerkily to her commands.

Eric's absence left a void in my part of the room and before I could blink, four vampires surrounded me, keeping enough distance away that I'd risk hitting someone behind them if I used fire. They were learning, but I had a few more tricks up my sleeves. Shifting wouldn't work in this high paced battle so I put on a good show of attacking with my sword, but what I was really focusing on was controlling their minds. As was generally the case with vampire minds, they were slippery so I was ecstatic that I was able to connect with two of the four. Those two, I encouraged to pause where they were and was able to quickly sneak close enough to touch them.

The other two roared as their partners appeared to just let me destroy them and then attacked me with zeal. That's unfortunately the moment when I learned that the cumulative impact of using so much energy was starting to affect me. I was getting tired. Everything was happening at top vampire speed and although I was still fast, I wasn't as fast as when I first arrived.

I pulled back a little and relied more on basic fighting skills to preserve my energy. Letting myself get too tired wouldn't help any of us. When Eric sensed my energy slowly fading, he sent me strength through the bond. He was doing the same with Pam whose arm was getting stronger. In the meantime, she fought with her other arm and every bit of her body. I'd never really seen her fight before in a real battle but even with her injury, she was terrifyingly beautiful as she moved around her attackers with deadly speed and grace.

Eric began to make his way back over to me but he faltered again when he felt another blade bite into Pam's back. It was a small wound, but each and every injury weakened her. Then James roared as a sword cut deeply into his thigh. He was able to defeat his attacker, but he lost a lot of blood in the process.

I was distracted for a second too long, frozen in place with horror as I watched my friends struggle and the next thing I knew, a powerful force hit me across the back, knocking me to the ground. I was winded and bruised, but unhurt thanks to my armor and I had just scrambled to my feet when Eric landed at my side. He must have taken to the air to get to me faster. He'd been avoiding this since it made him an easier target, but thankfully, he made it without any problems.

Each of us took a step in opposite directions but were both knocked off course as the building trembled around us.

An uncomfortable sensation squeezed my lungs and ears as though the density of the air increased for a moment and then I felt Maeve's wards around the building vibrate and then collapse.

Just as the building had trembled, so did my soul.

The fairies were coming.


	55. Chapter 55

A/N: The next chapter isn't far behind.

Chapter 55 Blitz

The sensation of the wards falling left me feeling naked, vulnerable and scared. We were unprotected.

A second later, one of the side doors opened and Maeve's broken and bloodied body tumbled in and landed horribly in the middle of the destroyed dance floor. I tore my eyes away when two of Wu's vampires descended upon her to drink whatever blood might be left.

I wish I could say that I had the time to mourn Maeve's death, but I didn't. My only thought was that the wards were down and now I was sure that the fairies would be coming just as Dermot had said they would. I had no doubt that he'd been right.

"Fairies!" I shouted. My voice cracked from exertion and fear as I continued to defend myself.

This was it; there was no more time to fight. We were weakening already. We couldn't possibly win against both fairies and vampires. I had to get everyone out of here, even if it meant leaving someone behind for a split second as I took the others to safety.

Shelia was in the worst shape with the deep wound in her side, so I made my way toward her, grabbed her bloody and thoroughly uncooperative hand and teleported back to the headquarters…or at least I tried, but nothing happened.

I couldn't teleport—not because I was tired, but because some kind of magic was holding me here, inhibiting me from leaving.

"I can't," I breathed as I released Shelia's hand and dodged a strike from an oncoming vampire who had converged upon us during my failed attempt. This couldn't be happening. We couldn't lose this fight.

Sheila snarled at me and struck the male in the stomach with an upward stroke of her dagger and then I took his head with my blade.

I turned around, blocking another blow and as I glanced around the bloodied and trashed room, my emotions started to get the best of me. The fairies would be coming. There was no other reason for them to have killed Maeve and in so doing, destroy her carefully built wards.

They were coming for me and I'd stupidly come straight back to Eric and all but a few of the most important people in my life. I knew they were after me, why the fuck had I done that? I should have gone somewhere else to draw them away and faced them alone but now it was too late. It was only a matter of time before they arrived. Guilt ate at my insides like acid.

Eric swept by me, placed a hand on my cheek and shook his head. Feeling his hand on my skin…looking at him, this man who I loved so very much, only made me more distressed.

"Focus, Sookie!" Eric demanded in a low hiss.

I shook my head and took a deep, cleansing breath to clear my mind. He was right. This wasn't over yet.

I called my iron sword back to me so I had one iron and one silver weapon. I slipped the iron sword into my belt and fought with the silver one, measuring each movement carefully, making sure to preserve my energy to fight the fairies. They would no doubt attack with magic and I needed to be able to respond in kind.

Once the fairies arrived, as I was sure they would, I'd have to take greater risks with using my fire at increasing distances. I cursed Niall for encouraging Wu to bring the gasoline; it would seriously limit my effectiveness, but I'm sure that was his plan. I would still need to get the biggest bang for my buck, since all attempts I made at pulling energy from the environment had resulted in little to no success.

Will must have come to the same conclusion because somehow he got close enough to Wu's guards that his invisible hand picked up one of the containers of gasoline and threw it out one of the broken glass walls. It cleared the glass but then the container shattered, spreading the liquid in every direction and soaking the surrounding five feet of floor and debris.

There was the physical proof of the force that had inhibited my telepathy, teleporting and our communications with the outside world. The boundary also told me that there weren't just any fairies outside, but that Niall had to be there. This was powerful magic.

We fought Wu's vampires for a few more minutes and despite my own dwindling effectiveness, we were somehow starting to finally make an impact and our odds were slowly improving. More importantly, the fairies hadn't arrived. Maybe they weren't coming after all.

I looked toward Sheila and found that she had finally succumbed to her injury and was lying a few feet from where I'd seen her last. Hopefully, she was simply unconscious and not dead.

Eric and Will were still in peak form and Pam and James were almost back to full function, but what made the difference was that Wu's reinforcements had stopped arriving.

Maybe we'd finished off the last of Wu's reserves, I was sure we'd killed more than thirty already and there were only a handful left fighting the five of us at the moment and many of those were injured.

My hope bloomed when Wu's remaining guards quickly ushered her to the closest door, taking the rest of the gasoline containers with them to keep me from attacking her as they went. I was furious at the thought of her escaping but the sight of her running was a beautiful one.

I relaxed a little for the first time since I received Macey's texts as Wu stepped out the door, not having had any trouble with the invisible boundary that held the rest of us in here. Then she turned around and grinned in at us. The look of unsuppressed glee on her face spoke volumes and a cold shiver ran up my spine.

Wu's guards returned a moment later and for the first time, they joined the fight. They were Wu's most experienced and oldest warriors, but now that the gasoline was gone, I could handle them without any problem.

I took a few steps towards them, but before I could act, the opposite door crashed open. I pulled out my iron sword and gripped it tightly. I'd expected fairies, but instead, Hunter ran into the building and my heart seemed to stop beating in my chest.

Copious amounts of dried blood caked one side of his head and face as well as the back of his tan short-sleeved shirt. His wrists were raw and bloodied as though he'd been restrained. The fairies must have tracked him down too. How had I not felt it?

The action in the room halted momentarily as the scent of Hunter's blood permeated through the air and I gaped at him, horror stealing my very breath. Our vampires were used to the scent of his blood, but Pam and James had been injured so their instinctual drive for sustenance would be stronger. I glanced around in a defensive action to see how they were faring and that momentary loss of focus on top of my shock at Hunter's arrival was all it took.

A huge force slammed into my back, throwing me over one of the last remaining tables and onto the floor. As I fought my way back up again, I saw Hunter barreling toward me, fire spewing from both hands, forcing everyone in his path to flee or die.

Eric must have anticipated what Hunter's arrival would do to me because one second, he was across the room and the next, he was making his way over to me, taking a perpendicular pathway to Hunter.

The vampire who knocked me down, jumped on top of me, landing on my back with a thump. I heard something crack inside my chest and then his knees pinned down my arms and his hands were prying at my helmet, trying to rip it off. Both Eric and Hunter were furiously frantic as they fought their way over to me, but I stayed calm. I focused on the feeling of his body touching mine and pressed my power to those points. He screamed and released me. When I rolled over onto my back, he was a towering pillar of fire that turned quickly into dust.

Eric was furious as he swung his sword at one vampire and then stabbed the gut of another who'd been approaching from behind and sent a third slamming into yet another. The one benefit to fighting many opponents at once was that he could use their bodies against each other. Then he had to dive for safety as Hunter blasted at least five streams of fire around the room with no heed for any vampire's well being.

Whatever had broken within me was healing, so I pushed myself up just as Eric stood up and he shocked me by laughing out loud as he threw himself gleefully back into the fight. Of course Eric would love fighting alongside Hunter. My son had no regard for anyone but the two of us at this point and obviously that didn't bother Eric at all. He knew Hunter's fighting style and was ready for it.

The ability to use fire more freely, now that the gasoline was gone, gave us the upper hand at a time when we desperately needed it. Once Eric saw that I was back on my feet and fighting again, he began a different approach to dispatching Wu's unfortunate followers. He caught Pam's eyes and they drove a pitifully thin but talented male towards Hunter and I. Up until now, Eric had been doing what he could to keep them away from me, but clearly Hunter's arrival and the removal of the gasoline had given him an idea. Once they were within ten feet, Eric and Pam quickly retreated and Hunter destroyed the entire area in which they had just been standing while I protected his back. It was risky for Eric and Pam and I didn't like it one bit, but they corralled two more this way before the tides changed again.

Fairies.

At least twenty of them, all male, came in through the doors. My knees shook as I moved closer to Eric, keeping out of Hunter's line of fire. I traded out my second silver blade for the iron one, gave another iron sword to Eric and set to work defending the three most important people in my life. The fact that we were also defending Eric's crown meant little to me at the moment, but they were inexorably tied.

I kept just barely ahead of each attacker, my blade vibrating in my hand and my feet navigating over the broken tables and toppled chairs that littered the floor.

Although I was terrified for him, Hunter continued to be a boon to us, adding his ferocity and single mindedness to our side, viciously attacking vampires and fairies alike. Oddly, most of the fairies stayed on the sidelines, hiding behind the vampires like cowards and waiting for them to weaken our defenses. A few of them moved around the room, using their magic to put out small fires that Hunter had accidently set and the few others who eventually did join the fight did so with devastating consequences.

James was felled by a strike from one of the largest fairies. The blade went straight through his stomach and nearly cleaved him in two. He fell only feet from where Sheila lay, still unmoving.

What struck me as odd was that no one stopped to finish James or Sheila off even though they were both now defenseless. Once they were deemed to no longer be a threat, they were completely ignored. Something was going on here-more than met the eye, but I didn't have the time to figure it out.

There were still five of us left now with the addition of Hunter, but Pam was slowing down and Will was no longer consistently cloaked. I was scanning the room when I saw Eric dodge a heavy blow to his side. The motion took him right into the path of another blade that skimmed his other forearm. There had been no way to prevent it; there were simply too many blades to avoid. He switched his heavier blade from his injured hand and continued to fight without any hesitation.

Hunter was still blasting fire occasionally, but he'd suddenly become even more fatigued than I was. As he weakened, his mind opened to me and I saw in his memories that fairies had attacked him as I'd feared. He'd been overcome by sheer numbers and brought here forcefully, but when they arrived, he'd managed to slam his already injured head into a rock to draw blood in the hopes of calling 'Eleu. His efforts paid off when she arrived and freed him before Kane tracked her down and forced her to leave rather than face the large contingent of fairies standing just outside this building. He'd been right to go, there was no chance they could win, but we sure could have used their help right now.

Hunter had rushed into the building and used most of his remaining energy in the first minute of his arrival and no wonder; he'd been through so much already. Now he was faltering against the few remaining but never-tiring vampires.

It killed me that he'd been suffering and fighting for his life just a few feet away, but I'd been unable to sense it. I tried to get over to him, but when I attempted to teleport even within this room, I couldn't. Instead, I ran, but as I did, I saw it happen as though in slow motion. I even felt it as the vampire's teeth tore into Hunter's calf and drew a mouthful of blood from his veins.

I stumbled and both Hunter and I screamed at the same time. Hunter's agony-filled roar was from the unbearable pain I knew too well and my scream was from the terror of knowing that Hunter would now be completely defenseless.

Before Hunter's scream died out, I was tearing across the room towards him. A slight tickling sensation, followed by a gust of cool air across my damp skin informed me that my armor was turning back into dust and was crumbling away from my body as I moved. The horror of the last few seconds proved too much for my ability to hold it together any longer.

By the time Hunter collapsed to the floor, I was dressed in nothing but shorts and a tank top but I couldn't care. I had to get the vampire off Hunter before he drained him.

I fought more ferociously than ever, but the lack of my armor left me horribly exposed. This was the moment we could never truly prepare for in practice-that moment when fear overcomes rational thought.

Unfortunately, the fairies had planned for this very situation. The moment I lost the security of my armor, the fairies left their safe havens around the edges of the room and entered the fray as a unit. I'd never seen fairies work in such unison before. Terror engulfed me. I didn't know how we could possibly hold up against so many.

This was what they had been waiting for so docilely.

Eric flew towards Hunter. On the other side of the room, Pam was working her way over too, but we weren't fast enough. A fairy beat us to Hunter.

It didn't matter how quickly we moved, whether I ran or Eric flew, we still couldn't get there fast enough to stop the fairy's blade from slicing through the air towards Hunter. I tried desperately to summon the blade to my hand, but the fairy only grimaced, tightened his hold on the grip and continued to swing.

My world stopped, my body lost all feeling and the room rang with my gut-wrenching scream.


	56. Chapter 56

A/N: My musical muse for this battle has been "We Want War" by These New Puritans.

Chapter 56 Checkmate

The trajectory of the fairy's sword altered at the last moment, decapitating the vampire who'd bitten Hunter. The fairy then turned his back on Hunter and began to fight off another vampire who was eager for some sera fae blood.

I stumbled to a halt but then forced myself to keep moving, despite the fact that I still couldn't feel my body.

The fairy had defended Hunter against almost certain death. Why? Why had he done that? His actions didn't fit with any of my expectations and that left me at loose ends. What was happening here?

I was truly shocked and beyond relieved by this turn of events, but I continued to fight my way to Hunter's side, determined to end anyone who threatened us. I couldn't allow myself to fall back on the false sense of security that the enemy of my enemy was my friend. Fairies weren't friends with anyone but themselves except in very unique situations. Who knew when the tides of fairy intrigue and insanity would change?

Hunter was just starting to move again when I came face to face with a fairy for the first time. The beautiful dirty-blond fairy and I stared at one another, neither of us attacking the other. Infuriatingly, nothing about him told me the slightest bit about his intent.

"Get out of my way," I croaked though my dry mouth. The fairy shook his head but I didn't see the whole movement because the sight of another fairy approaching Hunter distracted me. He bent down over my son and I didn't think-I just acted as my protective instincts kicked in. I struck out at the fairy blocking my way with a blast of fire that had all around us stepping back. He, however, didn't even flinch, but responded with the cold fairy shield I'd used against Kane.

Over his shoulder, I watched as the fairy put his hand on Hunter's back. Hunter yelled out in pain again and then collapsed back to the ground. Frantically, I pushed harder against the shield and with a scream of effort, my magic broke through, turning the fairy who had been keeping me from my son into dust.

I ran straight through his remains on my way to Hunter, but my progress was once again impeded when two other fairies stepped into my pathway. They were clearly furious that I'd killed one of their own but they simply stood there in my way like the he had, making no effort to attack or even touch me. All they were doing was blocking my way to Hunter and now Eric as well.

I glanced at Eric as he threw his second to last dagger at the one on my right and the fairy fell to his knees before getting to his feet and running out the door to get help for his wound.

I sprinted after him, trying to use him as a shield but two more fairies cut me off, neither of them making any move to attack me.

"What are you doing?" I seethed furiously, "Why are you doing this? What do you want?" I got no response to any of my queries, so I struck at the closest one with my sword. He didn't defend himself physically, but I felt his shield appear in front of me and my blade crashed into solid air a few inches from his body. The unexpected impact wrenched both my wrists and elbows and I stumbled back. It took me a moment to realize that the searing pain I felt in my arm wasn't mine, it was coming through the bond.

A panicked glance told me that it hadn't originated from Eric, but Pam, who was on the ground. Her left arm, which had been mostly healed was now completely severed. Blood seeped slowly from the stump and also from a deep wound in her chest. She was doubled over with an expression of pain that I'd never imagined I'd see on her face.

Eric roared and turned to defend her, but he stumbled and slapped a hand to his neck. Pain ripped through the bond again and this time it was Eric's. His bloody fingers came away from his neck with a thin spike that looked like a bo-shuriken, only smaller and thinner. His neck burned with pain as the end of the spike came out, revealing sharp barbs that tore at his flesh as he removed it.

I screamed in anger and fear, lashing out at the fairies nearest me with all my strength. Fire broke through one of their shields, but another joined them and no matter how much I tried, I couldn't make any headway.

"Stop! Tell me what you want!" I demanded, but my words fell on deaf ears.

When I turned back to check on Eric and Pam, I saw Will lying facedown on the ground behind them. He had multiple small wounds from spikes and a dagger still sticking out of his back. Pam was conscious, but was still too injured to move. Eric was the only one still fighting, but he staggered again when two more of the vicious spikes hit his thigh and stomach. Although he tried, they were too thin and thrown too fast for him to defend against and each one that hit him, sapped away some of his precious blood and strength.

Eric pulled the spike out of his stomach and threw it at one of the fairies who had cornered me. It hit the shield and fell to the ground with a quiet clink. I picked it up and threw it at another fairy who was closing in on Eric. This time it sunk into the fairy's back and he slumped to the ground at Eric's feet. Eric scooped up the body, ripped a wide hole in his neck and drank from it while he continued to battle with his free hand.

I gave up trying to get to Hunter and made my way to Eric instead. Hunter was unconscious and the fairy next to him didn't seem to be hurting him anymore, only restraining him magically. I could only hope they'd leave him alone.

Eric was recovering. The blood strengthened him, filling him with vigor and the inebriation fairy blood causes in vampires. That high took the edge of the pain off when three more spikes hit him, two in his chest and another in his thigh.

I cried out as he staggered from the combined attack and did everything I could to get to him. I made it about half the distance between us before a female fairy stepped out from behind two large males so quickly that she managed to graze my skin with the tip of one finger. The attack was so quick and unexpected that I never even got a glimpse of her face, only the general impression of a female form.

Magic flowed into my body like a freezing cold electric shock and I was only slightly aware of the sensation of my body being thrown across the room. It was just like I'd seen Claudine do during the Were war when she was protecting me, but unlike the Weres, I somehow survived the attack.

When I was able to open my eyes, the female was gone and male fairies once again surrounded both Eric and myself.

I rolled over, ignoring the stabbing pain in every inch of my body and pushed myself up onto my knees with shaky arms. My weapons were on the floor where I had been standing before and when I called one to me, it slowly crept across the floor. I had very little energy left and my body was almost useless. My arms and legs trembled and I had to gasp for breath to satisfy the screaming need my lungs had for oxygen before I could even try to stand. I felt weaker than when I had been mostly human. Whatever magic she'd used on me had sapped my remaining strength.

For some reason, the fairies allowed me to pick up my dagger. As my fingers closed around the grip, another spike hit Eric and he momentarily went down on one knee.

"Please," I begged the nearest fairy who seemed to be in charge. "Please, stop." He ignored me. "What do you want?" I asked in a louder voice, pushing myself back onto my rubbery legs. They all continued to pretend they couldn't hear me as Eric received a long slash along his back from a sword.

I screamed in terror filled fury and threw myself in Eric's direction, thinking only of getting to him. I needed to be with him, I needed to stop this. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't happen.

The fairies responded only enough to keep me from breaking through their line and my effort was so pathetic that most of them simply pushed at me with their hands, leaving their weapons sheathed. My dagger was knocked out of my hand as though I was nothing but a toddler with a stick too big for her to manage.

Their lack of true aggression towards me drove me insane. The contrast between how they were avoiding physical confrontations with me and how brutally they were treating Eric was tearing me apart. I wanted to fight too. I had to. This was not only my beloved's life, but my life and my future. If I lost Eric and Hunter, I wouldn't have a life anymore.

There must be some reason they weren't attacking me, they must need something from me. They must or they'd have killed me the minute I lost my armor. But what did they need? I searched around the room for familiar faces, but I'd never seen any of these fairies before tonight.

"Niall!" I yelled at the top of my voice as I wrenched myself free from a huge fairy. The action knocked me onto my butt and I stood back up as quickly as I could. The fairies held their ground, but otherwise left me alone. "Niall Brigant! I know you're here!" I just knew he was. "Stop being a coward and come out and tell me what you want!"

No one answered me, least of all Niall, and in my desperation, I flung myself at the smallest fairy, slamming into him and biting my lip in the process, drawing the first drop of my blood. He grabbed me by my shoulders and held me until he was sure I wouldn't fall down again and I thought I saw a flash of regret or pity in his dark eyes.

"Please, tell me what you want," I begged him, hot tears filling my eyes and running down my cheeks. Eric collapsed momentarily to one knee, his right arm hung limply at his side and blood ran down the side of his face. "I'll give it to you," I promised. "Whatever you want. Just stop. Please, stop hurting him."

Again, there was no response and I ran over in my crazed mind what in the hell they could possibly want. Suddenly I had an idea. "I'll give you a cluviel dor!" I yelled as loudly as I could to no one in particular.

This got a reaction.

The fairies around me all stilled at my words. Unfortunately, the ones surrounding Eric kept attacking him.

Eric made eye contact with me and I focused on his thoughts. '_Don't trust them,_' he warned and I was horrified to find that even his thoughts felt weak.

'_I have to do something. I don't know what they want._ _What else can I do?_' I asked silently, mentally embracing him and trying to give him any strength I had left as he stood back up and dodged yet another sword.

_'Eleu?'_ Eric asked and I sent him an abbreviated version of Hunter's story. She wouldn't be coming back. The odds were simply too stacked against her. Eric shook his head. He had no other ideas. He was still hoping against hope that his sheriffs would arrive.

"You lie. You have no cluviel dor," said the fairy leader, pulling my thoughts from where I most wanted to be right now.

"I do. I swear, I do."

"Where did it come from?"

"My grandfather Fintan gave it to my grandmother Adele. She left it to me."

There was a long silence during which I heard Eric grunt in pain. I surged forward and was pushed back again when I tried to get to him, my whole body was trembling and every few breaths came out as a heaving sob.

The fairy spoke again, "Then it is useless. Even if you really had one, you couldn't use it anymore and since your bloodline has none others with the spark, its magic died with you. This one," he gestured to Hunter, "might have been able to release its power until he embraced the scrios within him."

I caught my breath and literally bit down on my tongue, forcing myself not to say anything about Carrie Grace even though I was sure she would be able to use it. They hadn't found out about her yet, Mr. Cataliades' blood magic was still hiding her from the fairies and no matter how desperately I wanted to, needed to, I couldn't trade her safety and her future for Hunter, Eric or myself.

"Please don't," I begged hysterically as Eric took another blow to his back that caused him to fall to the ground, his good hand supporting his weight on his thigh and his head drooping forward. "Please, please, please don't do this."

I cried out, more tears streaming down my face as a fairy kicked Eric in the head and he crumbled to the floor, landing face up. My weak body couldn't break through the line of fairies separating us. No matter how much I scratched, kicked, hit or bit, they blocked my progression. Finally they'd had enough of me and one fairy pulled my arms behind my back and restrained them with by one hand. His other hand wrapped around my stomach, holding me close.

"Be still. You'll hurt yourself," he growled in my ear.

Hurt myself? What was he talking about? Was he truly insane? He was killing me. Every time they hurt Eric they were killing me.

Eric's wasn't moving and his thoughts and our bond became muffled. I was losing him! I pulled at my hands, but the fingers holding my wrists were as unrelenting as metal. I sagged and sobbed harder. I knew it was over. I knew I couldn't help Eric or any of us anymore. All I wanted to do now was be with him. I just wanted to hold him and Hunter in my arms.

The room was now silent except for the steady stream of my pleading sobs. The sound rang through my ears and reinforced how useless and pathetic I was. There was nothing I could do to help.

Searching for something, I reached out to Pam, James and Will's minds, begging them to help me come up with a plan, to find a new course of action to help Eric. James' mind was silent as it was in his day rest and although Will and Pam were able to answer me, they had no suggestions. Both were nearly as distraught as I was.

I threw my head back, doing everything I could to free myself and screamed as Eric's skin took on a grey tint and tightened on his frame. He couldn't handle any more blood loss. My voice broke again and again as I begged them to stop, promised to do whatever they wanted and cried out for Niall and 'Eleu's intervention. I even called out for Kane and Pele, but all my pleas fell on deaf or indifferent ears.

The fairy who had kicked Eric knelt down at his side and withdrew Eric's own dagger from his belt. I screamed again, blindly flailing my body as hard as I could. My heart was pounding so fast; it felt like it would explode out of my throat.

The fairy plunged the dagger towards Eric's chest and at the last moment, Eric grasped his wrist. I sobbed as they fought and the tip of the dagger sunk into Eric's chest.

In a moment of pure desperation and numb detachment from my own self, I let my legs go slack and the fairy holding me lowered me to the floor so that I was on my knees. I met the eyes of the dark-haired leader and something in my expression had him jerking his head at the fairy behind me. My arms were released and with numb fingers, I pried off my empty weapons belt and tossed it to the side. I then held out both hands, palms up, looked into his green eyes and breathed, "Anything."

He tilted his head to the side, looking at me curiously and testing something in the energy between us. I lowered my gaze so I was looking at the floor between us with eyes unfocused from my tears and said again,

"Anything. Anything you want."


	57. Chapter 57

A/N: I'm traveling over the Thanksgiving Week and then my husband is away for two weeks. I won't get anything done next week for sure, but I tend to do pretty well with the story when he's away so long as my little guy and I hold it together. We'll see. I'll do my best.

By the way, as I'm sure you realized in the last few chapters, I'm still on the chess theme for my chapter titles.

Chapter 57 Overloading

The room grew eerily quiet; only the sound of my labored breathing disturbed the tense silence. I waited seemingly forever until finally the sound of one pair of moving feet echoed in the room. I tensed internally, preparing myself to be restrained, beaten and taunted for my weaknesses, so it took me by surprise when a strong hand reached down and gently grasped one of my upturned hands. Very slowly, I looked up into a familiar face.

"I am Preston," he said seriously. I nodded, swallowing thickly and trying to stop the tears that kept flowing down my cheeks. I recognized him as the one we'd spared after the last battle at the headquarters. "The Prince is outside," he explained as he urged me to stand and follow him with a gentle tug on my hand.

My breath caught and I sat back on my heels, resisting without deliberately pulling on my arm. I couldn't leave them like this. Preston seemed to understand my hesitation.

"They will not be harmed while you are with the Prince," he said and I looked deep into his eyes to try and determine if he was telling the truth. Preston rephrased his words so I'd know I could trust what he was saying. "I give you my word that they will be safe from further harm while you are speaking with the Prince."

I blinked up at him; fairies didn't usually give this much assurance. This time when he pulled on my hand, I didn't resist.

I stood up awkwardly; relying on his firm grasp for support, then took a faltering step to follow him. As I did, the reality of what might happen out there struck me head on and I turned to look at Eric this last time. Seeing him solidified my resolve, he was so pale, he was gray, except for the blood that coated most of his skin.

I took a heaving breath and I sent him all the love I could harness, although my effort was feeble. My heart was simply too broken and the tasks before me too immense to be able to push much through the weakened bond. It was harder still, because even in his silent state, Eric was filled with fury and instinctually driven bloodlust. In my mind, I caressed his cheek and kissed his lips and prayed that he, Hunter and Pam would be able to help each other through this. He had to survive. They all had to survive.

Then I closed as much of the connections between us as I was capable of doing in my weakened state. Eric growled weakly and I gasped. I hadn't thought he'd be conscious enough to notice. Regret joined the grief that was shredding my heart into tiny pieces. I knew what I was doing to him, what my next steps would put him through and how much he would suffer because of it. But the other option was for all of us to die and I couldn't accept that. Cutting off the bond was the only way I could take the next steps that needed to be taken.

Then I glanced at my son, my sweet, brave boy who was only now finding his way. He was still unconscious and surrounded by two hulking fairies. If his face hadn't been streaked with blood, I could almost imagine that he was asleep the way I used to find him, crashed out on the couch after a long night with his friends. I longed to run my fingers through his soft hair and touch the precious face I'd watched mature year by year. But he wasn't asleep; he was unconscious. My knees wobbled at the sight of his pale face but the steady rise and fall of his chest reassured me that he would recover if given the chance.

Only Preston's promise allowed me look away from him, but I was brutally aware that it would take only one misstep on my part and they'd all be dead. With a shaky breath and some extra support to my mental shields to block out Will and Pam's worrying, I turned my eyes and my attention forward and allowed Preston to lead me through the door. My body froze in place as we passed the magical force around the building, but a gentle tug from Preston helped me pass. There was no way I could have broken through on my own.

I numbly walked with him past at least thirty more fairies spaced evenly around the brightly lit glass walls and down the slightly sloped grass towards a gathering of low bushes and one large gnarled tree.

On the other side of the bushes and under the outstretched branches of the old tree sat my great-grandfather. He was dressed in a perfectly tailored dark suit with his fine golden hair flowing down over his shoulders. He hadn't changed at all; everything from his papery skin to his deep green eyes was the same.

What was missing was the innate connection I'd felt with him, that something in my heart that had made me instinctually love and be in awe of him. Now I saw through his beauty and otherness to…what? What was at the core of this fairy prince who had hurt so many I loved?

I felt nothing as we moved toward him; emptiness had consumed me the minute I turned away from Eric and Hunter. There was no hope and no fear. I was numb inside; all my emotions were in stasis with the fate of those who truly owned my heart.

Preston stopped walking when we were about ten feet away from Niall and stepped so he was in front of me. He moved his hand to my shoulder and said, "I must be sure you won't attack him."

I started to shake my head. Even if I had the strength, I would never risk attacking Niall while those I loved were in such peril. "You have…everything," I said, looking back at the bright building.

Preston's eyes glanced quickly over to Niall and then returned to me. "I know. I regret it, but it must be done," he said as he moved both of his powerful hands to either side of my face.

I cried out as his magic flowed directly into me, stripping me of the little strength I had left. His hands released my face and his strong arms wrapped around me, supporting my weight and keeping me from collapsing to the ground.

"I don't like seeing you like this. You deserve better," he whispered as he helped me over to sit on a rock opposite Niall.

The rock was wide and flat, giving me just enough support to remain upright. I leaned forward and placed my aching head in my hands, bracing myself on my trembling legs.

Time passed. I don't know how much, but eventually I was able to force myself to look up at Niall. Preston had vanished and we were completely alone.

Niall's expression was impossible to read but I think we were both measuring the other, trying to find our footing in this new dynamic. At least I know I was. The last time I looked into his dark eyes, they were filled with love and now…

Power. Power I'd never felt before radiated from him, making me feel small and insignificant. This must be how it felt to have the Prince of the Fairies treat you like you're a bug rather than his treasured great-granddaughter. I'd taken his gentle handling for granted during the brief time we'd known one another. Now, however, I would see the real Niall Brigant.

Niall leaned forward and looked at me intently. As he did so, the power emanating from him increased even more. Being near him when he was like this was like being caught in an undertow.

"You will give us your blood," he said in a cold, hard voice. "You will do so willingly and with the intent that it will cure the ills that are killing my people."

So there it was.

That's what this was all about.

My blood.

I nodded dully, but one flicker of hope came to me from the Ancient Pythoness' words. This might be what she'd been preparing me for. "I have four pints of my blood back at…"

"It must come directly from you," Niall interrupted.

My hope faded as quickly as it had come. I contemplated his words, knowing without a doubt that I would agree to anything he demanded.

It was easy to imagine why he wanted my blood; I'd seen enough of its powers to make a pretty good hypothesis and after a moment of thought, I also understood why he hadn't just taken it from me. My blood was most potent when I gave it with a specific intent. I'd learned that with both Macey and Eric. Niall needed my cooperation, not just my body.

I think I paled a little, knowing what this meant for me and then I pushed away the fear. Pain. It was simply pain. I could survive that. I forced my hammering heart to slow down.

"How much do you need?" I asked, wondering if Dermot's warning had meant that Niall would take all that I had to give.

"I will not end your life," Niall said, his face relaxing for the first time now that he was confident I wasn't going to fight anymore. How could I? He had the means to motivate me to cooperate no matter how much damage the process did to me.

"Then what will?" I asked quietly, still thinking about Dermot's warning. He'd been spot on about everything so far, I was sure he was right about this point too.

Niall's eyes widened slightly and he paused for a few moments, thinking over my words. "Dermot," he breathed, but in such an impassive way that I couldn't tell if he was upset or not.

Not willing to sell out someone who'd tried to help me tonight, I didn't respond, but waited for his answer in silence. Eventually his shoulder moved in a strange way, I guessed it was a shrug and then he focused back on me.

"You will do this and in so doing, you will strengthen us," he said, meaning the fairies. I nodded and he continued. "The other scrios…they will strike you down for your betrayal."

"How do you know that?" I asked simply to say something. I knew he was right.

"I have been through this with other scrios. Not one was given pardon."

"Then why do you need me, if you've had others?" I asked, feeling like I was staring at the truck that was about to run me over.

"Their blood did not help us, but you are different. You have retained some of your fairy traits. It will work this time." He said that last sentence with determination as though he could make it so with his words alone.

I swallowed and blinked my eyes a few times to control my emotions in the face of his callous disregard for my life. I was to be part of an experiment that didn't have a conclusive result. He was giving me no option but to throw my life away and grievously hurt those who loved me for the mere chance that my blood would help them.

And then there were the other sera fae; another supposed part of my family, who would hold me responsible for my actions even though I would do this against my will. He was right though, the sera fae wouldn't allow me to live for trying to alter the balance between their two kinds so drastically.

I'd learned enough by watching Eric run his kingdom to be sure that no supernatural group would put up with that. Weres, vampires, fairies, other fae and even some humans…their reactions to such a betrayal would be the same. Destroy the perpetrator. I'd seen Eric kill spies who hadn't caused any permanent damage to the kingdom or anyone in it. This was just the way our world worked.

Well, at least I knew now.

"You weren't going to tell me." My words were a statement, not a question.

"No." He frowned and his forehead crinkled, making fine lines along his skin. "It was not my plan to do so."

"Were you worried I wouldn't cooperate if I knew?"

"No," he said again as he glanced back toward the building, "I was sure you still would."

"Then why?"

He looked at me for a while and finally some true emotion shone through his dark eyes, making him appear tired. "I thought it might be easier for you if you didn't know."

We sat in silence for a long time while I contemplated this man who wanted to spare a few of my feelings while he led me to my death. I guess it was better than Neave and Lochlan who wanted to torment me as much as possible as they killed me. But I think he was right, it would have been easier to go into this without knowing what loomed in my future.

"Have you always known?" I asked in a whisper, looking back at my great-grandfather.

"Not always, but once I had spent some time with you, I was sure you had the potential to become scrios. I believe Fintan knew too and that was one of the reasons he tried to keep me away from your family."

"Then why were you trying to kill me if you thought I might one day be able to help you?"

"I wasn't trying to kill you. That was the last thing I wanted. I was trying to get you to see that you had to move on." He shook his head and gave me the first hint of a smile, "You were so stubborn. Nothing I threw in your path made you even think about leaving."

"Neave and Lochlan?" I asked with a shaky voice.

He nodded. "I would not have let them kill you."

I had to look away from him. His betrayal of the trust I had given him went so very deep.

"I loved you," I said dully.

"And I, you, child. I still do."

I laughed spitefully and to my horror, the laugh turned into a sob that I struggled to contain. How could he possibly care for me with what he was making me do?

"You care for the ones inside," he said looking at the building. I nodded, wiping my tears away with the side of my hand. He knew I cared; it was the whole reason I was here with him. There was no point in denying it. "If you had to make a choice that meant you had to give up one to save all the others…could you make that choice?"

I didn't have to think about it. I could and I would. It would be horrible and I'd probably torture myself about it for the rest of my life, but I'd do it.

"That is what I have had to do. My people are dying. Soon there will be nothing left of us. It does not mean I didn't and don't care for you."

I understood his words, but my heart refused to accept his sentiments. It was just too much for me to handle.

"You didn't have to hurt them to get me to do this," I said and disgust laced my words as I thought of Maeve, Lev and all the others we'd lost and might still lose.

"Yes. I did. Just as I had to involve my great, great-grandson, the last of my line through Einin, to get you to leave your vampire and your home the first time." Anger flashed in his eyes, but I was too stunned by his words to care.

"What?" I breathed. He couldn't have known about Hunter, at least not when he was a child. Mr. Cataliades' magic would have kept him hidden.

Niall held up a hand, encouraging me to listen. "You asked me not to kill Eric Northman on the first night we spoke. So when my own efforts failed to make you leave, I encouraged an old acquaintance to lock his child into a vampire marriage since he was then the main thing holding you back from the future I needed you to have."

I gaped at him but could find nothing to say. He'd been the cause of so many of my problems. "Still you refused to leave for your own sake," he said and a small smile once again crossed his beautiful lips. "While I was irritated with you, I was also proud. You faced so much danger from many directions, some were of my making and some were not. Your courage in the face of so much danger confirmed that you truly were of my own blood."

His smile faded and he actually looked disappointed when I didn't join him in celebrating our kinship. He blinked and then landed another blow, "Luckily, I had a contingency plan that I was sure would work. Claude told me of the child and of your love for him. He suspected that he was telepathic and then questioned the child and learned of his mother, thus confirming that he too was of my direct bloodline. We knew that you might leave if the child were the one in danger."

I sat up taller. "What did you do?" I accused in a hiss, finally feeling something in my hollowed out heart.

"When the time was right, Claude gave the father a few suggestions and two days later, you were gone," he said with a triumphant smile. I gasped audibly, but he continued. "When I arrived at the swamp, I could smell from the blood you left behind that you had indeed finally become scrios." His smile faded. "But then I also recognized the signs that the Britlingens had come for you," he said with disgust. "And I knew that I wouldn't be able to follow you and that all my efforts and hopes might be wasted."

His anger had faded as he spoke and was replaced with a look of absolute despair. "And the child, who, without you, was my last hope, could not be found either. I was…distraught." He brushed a hand slowly across his face and he looked older than ever. "All I could do was keep close to the vampire in the hopes that you would return to him. Meanwhile, my people continued to suffer."

My heart broke even more, if that was possible, for both Hunter and Remy, yet another family torn apart by the fairies. But I was relieved beyond words that he didn't know about Jason's kids and that he hadn't gotten his hands on Hunter when he was younger. Still, his actions were unforgivable.

"I hate you," I said. My voice was hollow, I had nothing left to spare for this man. "I hate what you did and what you're doing now."

Niall nodded solemnly. "I would expect nothing less from you, blood of my blood."

Niall looked to the side and a moment later, Preston popped back into view about twenty feet away. "It's time. We must go."

"Not until they're safe," I said, looking back at the building that held my heart.

Niall said a few quiet words that I couldn't understand and Preston stepped forward, taking my arm in his firm grasp. I shied away from the debilitating magic that trickled into my body though the contact, ensuring that I could not resist.

Preston nodded at Niall who then waved a hand. A few seconds later, the fairies surrounding the building disappeared and a group of vampires sped into view, led by Thalia and the other sheriffs.

"Of course, their continued safety will depend on you," Niall said in such a neutral way, it almost didn't sound like the threat it was.

"Promise me."

"If you do what I ask, I promise that they will not be harmed by us unless they attack us first."

That was as good as I was going to get from him. I nodded and then squeezed my eyes shut tight to stop myself from thinking about the future, my future without them and their future without me. Then I delved into Thalia's mind just long enough to gain the assurance I needed that she would help everyone inside. I shut her out the second I saw that she already had a plan in action. I could only endanger them now.

Thalia slowed just outside the door and looked around for me, having sensed my mind touching hers, but just like when we'd been inside, everything beyond the boundary of the building had been magically shrouded in absolute darkness. She quickly gave up her search and continued inside with the others.

I desperately wanted to follow her mind inside so I too could be with them, but that would just cause all of us more pain.

"What about Queen Wu?" I asked to distract myself and further ensure their safety.

Niall gestured to a small lump in the grass a few feet away. The light from the distant building was bright enough that I could make out blue and orange material under the dark ash**.**

"She will not bother him anymore," Niall said.

"You killed her, yet you left everyone I love alive," I mused out loud.

"I know you, child," he answered softly and I withdrew a little more into myself at his words.

Yes, sadly, he knew me very well.

In a carefully orchestrated series of events, Niall had made sure that I understood exactly how much I had to lose if I didn't do what he wanted.

Preston helped me to stand and Niall held out his hand for me. This was it. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move, but I had to…for them. I took one more quick glance into Thalia's mind and saw her already giving Eric blood while calling for donors for the vampires and Doctor Ludwig for Hunter and Sheila. They would be safe. So long as I did this right, they would be safe.

After a brief and incredibly painful pause, I forced myself to take Niall's hand, and despite the tears that rolled freely down my cheeks, I was comforted by the thought that what I was preserving was far more precious than what I was giving away.


	58. Chapter 58

A/N:

Thanks to all the reviewers. I decided to use my time to work on this chapter (between traveling and a stomach virus-yuck) rather than review responses, so I apologize if I didn't get back to you, but please know how very much I treasure each and every one of you!

Someone asked a really good question in a review. Could Niall have used the cluviel dor? The way I see it, the cluviel dor is a gift of love. Fintan gave it to Adel and their combined bloodline. I don't believe that Niall would have been able to use it because that wasn't Fintan's intent. Plus all evidence is that Fintan didn't trust Niall. If he didn't trust him, he probably didn't love him (at least not enough) and so the cluviel dor wouldn't work for him.

-We've skipped some time here. So if you feel that you've missed something, don't worry. I'll fill in the holes as we go along.

Chapter 58 Embrace

I was being held in warm arms, securely embraced against a solid chest, too weak, too tired and too broken to open my eyes to see who held me or where we were. I had learned over the past weeks…or months, that it was better not to think too much and to try not to feel more than I absolutely had to either. Unfortunately the latter was much harder to accomplish.

I moaned quietly as the arms holding me tightened, causing my wounds, old and new, to scream in protest. Warm lips pressed against my forehead and then the chest under my ear rumbled.

Angry words and tense tones assaulted my ears and I withdrew even further into my cocoon of nothingness, protecting myself as best I could. Eventually, the tone changed and some of his words filtered through to me. Disjointed bits about not healing…has happened before…and then something else about blood.

I flinched; I didn't want to give any more blood. I didn't want to have to cut my own flesh and willingly allow myself to be hurt for another's benefit. But what I wanted didn't matter. All that mattered was holding up my end of the bargain so they would be safe.

I could do it again. I would do it again, if need be. I would find the strength somewhere.

A cool breeze brushed against my side and then embraced me and the warm chest was gone. Now the embrace was cool…cool and familiar. My nose confirmed what my skin was telling me and I curled more securely into him. Soft lips peppered my face with kisses and I knew that somehow, I was home. I was with Eric.

I burst into soft tears, unable to recruit the energy necessary to truly release the depth of my regret and relief.

We moved quickly, but I didn't worry anymore, I was with him. Then voices rang out around us, startling me and I had to touch him again, smell him again to remind myself of where I was now.

Finally, there was silence and somewhere within that silence, our bond bloomed again, filling my bleak heart with his light. I allowed it to wrap itself around me and within the safety of his loving arms, blessed sleep took me away.

o-o-o

"Sookie…Sookie, wake up. You must drink. Wake up."

I sighed, a deep, relieved hum as my beloved's voice stirred me from my sleep. Strong and familiar hands rubbed my stiff fingers and caressed my cheeks, drawing me even further to the surface. I forced my heavy eyelids open and looked directly into Eric's beautiful blue eyes. They were eyes I thought I'd never see again.

He smiled, a relieved, yet tense smile. "There you are. Good. Now keep your eyes open this time," he said as my eyelids fluttered shut. "Sookie!" I opened them again. "Please Sookie, please stay awake. You need to drink," he urged, putting a warm glass to my lips.

I did as he asked. The liquid was warm and thick and had a sweetness to it that helped it go down easier.

As I drank, Eric continued to touch my face and spoke words of love and thanks for my return to him. What he didn't realize was that the true miracle here was that he was safe. He and…

"Hunter?" I asked, taking a break from my drink, and my voice came out hoarsely, reminding me why my throat was raw. I shivered, remembering the pain and Eric scooted his body closer to mine.

"You're safe. I'm with you now," he promised and I relaxed. He put the glass to my lips again. When I started drinking, he responded to my question.

"Hunter has completely recovered. Thalia got him on a plane with Were guards and sent him to Washington State. He healed within a few hours. Now keep drinking."

I took a few more sips and now that I was a bit more cognizant, I frowned and looked at the glass. This was blood, but not Eric's blood. I looked up at Eric and he gave me a half smile.

"It's your blood. We're fulfilling the Pythonesses' prophesy. This should help you feel better," he said, but there was doubt in his eyes. I drank a little more and then took a break. There was more I needed to know.

"Everyone else? Pam…"

"They're fine. Sheila needed Doctor Ludwig's help, but she's been back at work for a week now. She'll be here at sunrise. Now, keep drinking," he ordered, pressing the glass to my lips again.

I emptied the glass and my eyes closed. I was so tired.

"Sookie, dear. Wake up, honey. I have some soup for you." Softly spoken words filtered through my exhaustion and a warm washcloth gently caressed my forehead and cheeks.

I opened my eyes to find Gia sitting on the side of my bed and leaning over me with a look of concern on her kind face. It was strange to see her in our bedroom; no one but Pam ever came into our rooms. I looked to the side and was disappointed not to find Eric next to me. There was so much I needed to say to him. I was sure he had to be furious with me and I needed to face that and make sure he was all right.

"Eric's next door with Pam and Miriam," Gia explained, understanding my expression. "Shelia and I are here to help you today."

Help? I frowned, but my brain was simply working too slowly to really process her words.

"Let's sit you up, so you can eat. I made chicken noodle soup for you."

I nodded and tried to push myself up in the bed while Gia carefully folded down the covers but I gasped and collapsed back onto the bed as my arms were stabbed with pain.

"Oh, dear," Gia lamented as she paled at the sight of my arms, "Honey, I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was so bad. Of course you can't do it on your own. I'll get Sheila to help, she's just in the other room."

"No," I moaned, Sheila was one of the last people I wanted to see me like this. I tried again, this time relying more on my core muscles than my extremities to move, but I was wearing out. So when Sheila walked into the room, obviously having heard us, all I could do was accept her help.

She was uncharacteristically quiet, lifting me up to a sitting position with her hands on my trunk, avoiding the mutilated skin on my arms all-together.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"Sure," she responded, looking anywhere but at me and then thankfully, she left the room again.

Gia sat back down on the bed and placed a footed tray over my lap so it didn't touch my sensitive legs and then put a bowl of soup in the center of the tray. It smelled heavenly. I was starving. Carefully, I moved one arm at a time and found that I was able to manage the spoon without it hurting too much. I spilled more than I ate and so when the delicious soup was gone, I was still hungry.

I looked back up at Gia. She was smiling down at me, relief evident on her face. She turned to the side and retrieved another glass filled with blood from the bedside table.

"Eric wants you to have this," she said gently when she saw my frown. The blood looked disgusting. I knew it had to be mine again, it smelled nothing like Eric's.

"I don't think it helped me last night," I argued. "The soup gave me more energy than the blood." And it did, I fell asleep right after taking the blood last night, but right now, I had more energy than I'd had in a few days.

The fairies had known that food would sustain me. They'd made sure I got plenty of food, fluids and access to the sun so I could recover as quickly as possible and be ready to gift my healing blood to yet another ailing fairy. It worked for a while and then I just ran out of…everything.

"After you drink this I'll go get you some more soup," she promised.

She obviously had her orders from Eric so I reached a shaky hand out to take the glass from her. I spilled a bit, so Gia gently cupped the bottom of the heavy glass until it was almost gone and then I managed on my own.

"Feel better?" she asked.

I shook my head; I felt nothing from it. Everyone else who took my blood had an immediate, almost euphoric response to it, but I felt nothing. I might as well have been drinking tomato juice.

"Okay, I'll get you some more soup and be right back," she said as she gathered up the tray and the dirty dishes and walked to the door.

A few moments after she left, Sheila walked in and sat in the chair on my side of the bed, looking decidedly uncomfortable. This routine was disturbingly familiar and although I tried to stop the swell of memories, they came back anyway.

Niall had been smart with his choices of which fairies he sent to me at first. They consisted of equal parts male and female, and all were seemingly empathetic to my situation, although most, I think, were just good actors as most fairies tended to be. They saw that I had whatever I needed to be as comfortable as was possible within my prison walls that had been turned into a makeshift apartment. Or maybe it was the other way around and it really was someone's bleak home that had become my prison. I didn't know and it didn't matter. The end result was the same. I was trapped in every way that Niall could control.

He had my body and my heart all but in shackles, but to his immense displeasure, he couldn't control my mind. That's one of the reasons the process took so long. Besides my body simply needing longer and longer to recover each time I gave another fairy my blood, I had to actually want to help them, not just tell myself I did. I knew Niall's patience wasn't endless, he made that very clear, so I allowed myself to fall for their charades.

Once I could drum up a little bit of empathy for their situation, maybe a small amount of appreciation for their zest for life and for their momentary kindness towards me, I could force myself to find the strength to actually hope my blood helped them. Maybe I didn't always achieve exactly what Niall wanted, but I did what I could.

It helped that I hate to see anyone suffer and the fairies had truly been suffering, Niall hadn't exaggerated about that. Think about the small towns we hear about that have been drinking polluted water and growing food in soil poisoned by some big company nearby. That's what the fairies have been dealing with due to the iron in the lands they used to inhabit. No one should have to face that kind of horror.

The iron pollution destroyed their ability to breed consistently, caused infant death in half of the children they were able to birth successfully, impaired their longevity, general health and powers. Only a few of them were as powerful as Niall, Claudine and Preston anymore.

Of course, there was always the fear that a stronger fairy meant that they would endanger more vampires, shifters and humans, but I fervently hoped that they would turn out more like Claudine and less like Neave and Lochlan. I could only hope that my blood would heal not only their bodies but their hearts and souls as well. That thought is what really enabled me to do what I had to do.

The first fairy Niall sent to me was Claudine and Claude's older sister, Brigid. She looked and acted so much like Claudine that it had been easy to help her. The next had been Preston and he was very kind with helping me recover from Brigid, but his gentle kindness made me miss Eric even more and it triggered an intense period of mourning for all that we had lost.

Preston waited patiently though it all, always gently reminding me that I was the only thing keeping my loved ones alive. Instead of threatening me like the words would have if they had come from Niall, Preston's words strengthened my resolve. He knew just what to say and how to say it. There was something about Preston and the way he related to me that made me feel like I'd know him much longer than I really had. He almost seemed like an old friend.

The problem with getting to know one fairy was that the minute I gave my blood, that fairy disappeared and the next one appeared and I had to start all over again. The new fairy would stay with me, acting as my companion and later on in the process, my nurse, gently making sure that I ate and drank. I knew they were probably only looking out for their own interest, ensuring that I would be able to give them my blood, but it made the process easier, at least in the beginning.

I did try to refuse once, when I was feeling especially depressed and within two minutes, Niall entered the room. He mumbled and waved his hand towards the wall. A moment later I saw Hunter striding across a rocky terrain. Niall mumbled again and there was Pam, getting into a car with a worried looking Miriam close at her side. Pam's arm was in a sling and she was clearly not as strong as usual. He waved his hand again and informed me that Eric had not yet replaced the wards on the headquarters and that he had been seeking out a meeting with Niall since the night of the battle. Translation: they were all still easy targets.

That was all the reminder I needed. After that, I shut off my mind and simply focused on their survival. I would obviously run out of strength at some point, but if I did everything I could, if I gave everything I had, Niall would leave them alone. He'd promised me and fairies couldn't outright lie, so I had to believe him.

Only two fairies stood out to me after that. One was a female water fairy with pointed teeth who gave me horribly vivid flashbacks to my time with Neave and Lochlan. The other was Claude.

In the end, I'd been unable to help Claude. It didn't matter what I told myself or how many stories he told me about his life with Claudine and his other triplet, Claudia. I was simply too angry with him for his part in manipulating Remy into giving Hunter up. We tried for days, but eventually, Niall told Claude to leave and sent the next fairy in to replace him. He ended up being the last one I'd been able to help. I was absolutely exhausted and my body had long before stopped healing from the slices I cut in my skin with the small blade I'd been given, so my arms and legs were covered with two-inch long cuts.

"I owe you one, Stackhouse." Sheila's mumbled statement shook me from my memories.

"Don't," I returned, still partially immersed in my toxic memories. "They were there for me, you just had the misfortune of being in their way."

"Still…"

"Cut it out, Sheila. You fought like a demon in there," I said, putting the attention on her rather than myself.

She smiled at the reference to her mixed bloodline. "I've never been in a battle like that before. It was insane."

"You liked it," I accused.

"Yeah…until things got bad," she admitted.

"You were so pissed when I tried to teleport you out of there," I said with an attempt at a smile.

"You'd better believe it, I was just hitting my groove."

"Bullshit. You'd just pulled a dagger out of your stomach, I don't think you were going to get any better after that point."

"Shows what you know," she said and we both chuckled at her false bravado and deliberate skewing of events. It felt strange to laugh; I hadn't even smiled in so long.

The exchange had sapped the little energy Gia's soup had given me so, with a quiet groan, I carefully slid down in the bed and closed my eyes.

Sheila broke the peaceful silence after a minute. "Why do you think you're not healing?" she asked, putting emphasis on the word, 'you,' telling me that the others had theories of their own.

"I've been cut off," I answered without thinking.

"That's what that fucking fairy bastard told Eric," Sheila said with a snarl.

I opened my eyes again and looked at her. "Who?"

"Brigant. The asshole brought you back; all fucked up like you are now and had the balls to tell Eric that he loved you and that your condition wasn't his doing. He blamed it on the sera fae, or scrios as he calls them. I swear…if he hadn't threatened to teleport away with you, Eric would have ripped him into a hundred pieces."

Cloudy memories resurfaced, but I couldn't grasp at any of them enough to make sense of them. I sighed and settled deeper into my pillow, I didn't want to think about this anymore.

"He told Eric to give you the banked blood the AP warned you to keep, but he didn't think anything could help you."

"It's not helping," I responded. "It won't help. I need their energy to live."

I'd expected to be attacked by the sera fae once I'd helped the fairies, but this was just as final. I couldn't live without the energy we all shared, not for long anyway. Food, rest and perhaps sunlight would help the tiny bit of me that wasn't sera fae, but I knew instinctively that it wouldn't sustain me for much longer.

"S'okay," I slurred as I fell asleep. "It was worth it."

At some point, I was disturbed by a loud crash accompanied by a series of expletives coming from Sheila in the other room. Then, although she wasn't talking to me, Gia's gentle voice lulled me back to sleep.

o-o

More strained voices pulled me from my sleep. This time when I forced my eyes open, Pam was sitting on my bed, looking down at me. Where was Eric? If Pam was here, then Eric must be awake. I felt for him in the bond. He was nearby, angry and worried. I tried to reach for him telepathically, but it was like using a strained muscle and I quickly gave up my attempt. My most innate sera fae skill had finally failed. I felt naked without it-smaller and weaker than ever before. I'd been physically broken many times, but I'd never lost my telepathy.

Pam leaned down and kissed my forehead, a gesture I'd never received from her before.

"Where's Eric?" I whispered in my cracked voice.

"Making plans," she answered. "He has an idea that might help you."

I nodded, "And Hunter?"

"He went back to Hawaii to track down 'Eleu or even Pele."

I shook my head and my lower lip quivered. "No," I moaned, not after all I'd done to keep him safe. He couldn't put himself at risk for me. If the sera fae were upset with me, I was sure Hunter was on their shit list too.

"We tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen to any of us." I looked up at her in confusion, it didn't sound like her or Eric to agree with me on a point like this. I was usually more cautious about Hunter than they were. She shrugged, "Kilauea started erupting the day after you disappeared and I'm not just talking about a few bits of lava here and there. They've evacuated many parts of the island and flights have been cancelled due to all the ash in the air. It was pretty obvious to us that Pele's not in a very good mood right now."

I closed my eyes and tried to reach out for Hunter, but like my telepathy and the energy flow I'd so taken for granted, my connection to Hunter was silent.

"He's fine," Pam offered. "He sent a text just half an hour ago," she smiled. "Eric has him checking in every hour like he made you and Sheila do."

I breathed out a sigh of relief, grateful once again for Eric trying to protect my son. At least he gave Hunter an hour rather than the thirty minutes he'd given Sheila and I.

"How are you?" I asked and only then did I realize that she had two complete and fully functioning arms. I smiled at her as she wiggled her fingers.

"Henry was able to reattach it before it was too late. I'd have hated to wait for it to grow back; Eric tells me that it's a very painful and slow process."

That, I could imagine. "And James and Will?"

"Perfect, Sookie. We're all perfect. It's you who needs fixing," she said with a scowl. "At least we finally know what the Ancient Pythoness was talking about. Well, I do. Eric's still trying to find other options, but if he doesn't hurry up, I'll do it for him and then her prophesy will really come true."

I was confused by her words and by the way she said them, as though she were passionately promising to help me in some way.

"I don't understand," I asked.

"Sookie, you're dying and nothing we've done has helped you." She stood up and paced the length of the bed and back as she ticked off on her fingers. "Your blood, Eric's blood, food, water, sleep—none of it helped. We even risked having the shifters take you outside during the day, but you became weaker. Even Doctor Ludwig is at a loss."

I was still confused. She looked at me expectantly and then let her fangs run out and gestured to them.

Oh. Really? Oh wow. Could that really work? Would that actually solve my problems? If I were a vampire, I wouldn't be fairy or sera fae anymore and the only one to want me, or who would hold any power over me would be Eric. Oh my God, it would be so wonderful to be tied to Eric and only Eric.

A thought that very recently had disturbed me greatly, now gave me peace and hope. Hope. What a strange sensation after so much despair. After all the hard choices I'd had to make, this choice seemed natural and easy. I wanted to be with Eric, to be a part of him. I trusted him. I trusted that he would never misuse any power he might have over me and the thought of being tied to him even tighter than we were now was like an answer to my prayers after being separated from him for so long.

"Thank you," I said to Pam and she smiled, pleased that I understood her so clearly. She would make me vampire if Eric took too long. I couldn't imagine that he would delay, but I appreciated that Pam would be willing to tie herself to me in that way.

"You're welcome but I'm not the only one. James has also told Eric to stop delaying and if Gia or Sheila were vampires, you would already be halfway to being one too by now."

I smiled. Yes, I could see both of them taking matters into their own hands.

"Speaking of Gia, I have some food for you."

She helped me sit up and I ate some cut up angel hair pasta with a light broth-based sauce, but instead of giving me energy, the food made me feel heavy and sleepy.

The next time I awoke, I was in Eric's arms. One of his hands was running up and down my back in a soothing pattern while the other gently traced over my face and neck.

I enjoyed the sensation for a while and then looked up into his pain-filled eyes. I raised a shaky hand and caressed the side of his face and ran my fingers through his long hair. Tears built up in my eyes again and trickled down into my hairline. This time, they were tears of gratitude that he was here and safe and whole. The last time I'd really seen him, he'd been so close to his final death but he was here now and there was no sign of his many injuries or the blood loss.

Every part of me worked to take him in, memorize the way he looked, smelled, felt and sounded. I'd accepted that I'd never see him again, so every second I had with him was a gift.

He leaned down and kissed my chin, my lips and my cheeks. "I love you," he whispered, "I love you. I thought I'd never see you again."

"I know…I know," I cried, trying to get my arms to cooperate enough so that I could hold onto him. I just couldn't do it, so I curled into him as much as I could. "I love you, Eric and I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

He hushed me with gentle murmurs.

"If I hadn't gone to Hana…"

Eric cut me off, "It wouldn't have changed a thing, but if you hadn't gone to Hana, you wouldn't be the woman I love. I fell in love with a woman who fights fiercely for her friends, a woman who loves deeply and passionately, not one who sits on the sidelines afraid to make a mistake."

"You're not…you're not angry with me?" I asked, catching my breath.

He released me and rolled me so that I was on my back again. When I looked up at him, he squeezed his eyes shut tight and shook his head. "I'm furious, Sookie, but not with you."

I nuzzled my face into his neck and he groaned. Finally, I completely relaxed in the arms of my love.


	59. Chapter 59

A/N: Sorry this took so long. Business trips and two rounds of the stomach flu made writing nearly impossible. If I don't post again before the 25th, Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates! Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Your support means so much to me and keeps me going.

0-0-0

Chapter 59 Save Yourself

"Sookie. Sookie, wake up," Eric tapped my cheek and kissed my lips. Slowly, I awoke.

"Hmmm?" was all I could manage at first.

"You have to wake up. I want you to eat something. Jason will be here in a little while."

That got my attention. I blinked my eyes open.

"What? Why?" I croaked.

Eric frowned, and then he reached into his pocket and removed his closed fist. I froze when he opened his hand and showed me the creamy green cluviel dor.

"But, I can't-" I began and then it hit me. Jason…the cluviel dor…"No!" I gasped. My heart started to pound and it burned in my chest. He knew I couldn't use the cluviel dor. There was only one pathway he would want to follow with the fairy love token. "Not Carrie Grace." I begged. "Please, Eric. You can't. Tell them to go back home!"

Eric ran his thumb over the gold edging of the magical device and spoke in a calm, measured voice. "She's the only one who might be able to use it to help you. Hunter tried already, but nothing happened, so she's our only hope."

"No." I said adamantly, ignoring the pain in my arms and deep in my chest as I shifted in the bed so that I was sitting partway up. "We can't put her at risk. It's too risky for her to be seen coming here."

"Lay back down," Eric said in a frustrated tone," you're making your arms bleed again and you're straining your heart."

"I don't care, Eric," I said through gritted teeth, trying to blink away the black spots that were obscuring my vision. God, I hated being this weak. "We can't involve her in this. Niall doesn't know she exists. If he finds out about her, he'll never leave her alone. She'll end up like me."

My head spun sickly and I closed my eyes, trying to hold back the nausea brought on by my anxiety. Eric's firm hands guided me so I was on my back once again and then his fingers curled tightly into the material of my nightgown.

Frustration and anger bubbled through the bond as he growled into my ear. "Sometimes, people who love you do things for you that you don't want them to do, Sookie."

I looked at him beseechingly as the weight of his words tore at my heart. I loved him so much and I hated that I'd hurt him, but I still couldn't let Carrie Grace be pulled into this nightmare.

"Please, Eric, she's just a child. We don't even know if it'll work. Please don't experiment on her. You're better than Niall. He used me. Don't use her," I begged.

Anyway, it didn't matter. I didn't want to live this way anymore. "You were right…about what the Ancient Pythoness meant. I choose to be a vampire with you. I want to be with you and only you. " My voice was just a whisper now as I fought to stay conscious, but I was sure he could hear me.

"I won't do that to you, Sookie," he said, his words were tinny and distant as I slipped into sleep. "You'll regret it one day if I do and you'll resent me. I won't take away your future as you are now until I'm sure there's no other way."

I tried to protest some more but the fatigue was too overwhelming.

The next time I opened my eyes, Pam was back and from the look in her eyes, she was furious.

"Cut the crap, Sookie," she snapped at me.

"What?" I mumbled.

As I woke, a sinking feeling in my chest told me that I was upset about something, but I couldn't put a finger on what that something was.

"Stop trying to save everyone all the time."

Was she upset with me for my actions in the battle? That didn't make any sense after her grateful behavior the last time I saw her.

I licked my dry lips and blinked a few times. This was crazy. My head was pounding, my body ached and the last thing I wanted to do was fight with Pam when all I really wanted to do was hug her. So when I spoke, there was no fire behind my words, just the sadness and fatigue I felt so acutely.

"What else was I to do, Pam? I wasn't going to just stand there. They would have killed Eric!"

"And how would that make you feel?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

"What?" What was she doing? Her probing question reminded me of Dr. Sidney Freedman, the psychiatrist from MASH. Gran had loved that show and we'd watched it over and over again with her growing up.

"How would that make you feel, Sookie?" She spoke slowly, putting emphasis on each word and then she followed her question up with a blow to my gut. "To see Eric's body flaking away?"

The breath left my body and I closed my eyes, trying to block out the unspeakable image, but she continued to harass me. She didn't need to of course; I'd been seeing that horror running in a constant loop through my mind since the night of the battle.

"Or to watch the light fade from Hunter's eyes or whatever happens to you guys when you die?"

I squeezed my eyelids tighter and a tear slid down the side of my face into my hair.

"Stop. Please, stop," I begged. I couldn't take it. I couldn't handle the thought. I didn't understand why she was doing this to me.

"See," she said harshly, gesturing at me. "That's what I mean. This is what I'm talking about."

"What?" I whispered again, wanting her to get to the point so she'd leave me in peace.

"You can't face losing someone you love so you do everything you can to throw yourself in front of the bus before that can happen."

Of course I would do anything to save people I loved, what was her problem? "What's wrong with trying to save you all? People have been dying to save their loved ones for millennia. Why can't I do the same?"

"Because it's a different motive for you. That's why. You do it because you're a coward. Not because you have to. You've always been that way," she snarled. "Act first to protect your heart. Think later. You did the same thing when you left us the first time."

I didn't miss that she said 'us' while referring to when I left to save Hunter when he was just a little boy, but pain still pierced my heart at her accusation. This so wasn't fair. There were never any good choices to make and I did think things through before acting, I just hadn't been able to involve Eric and Pam in my thought processes every single time.

"What could I have done differently, Pam? You and Eric didn't have any other ideas at the time so please tell me because I did the only thing I could to make sure some of us got out of there alive. No, I didn't expect to be one of the lucky ones, but I was the only one with any bargaining power, so please tell me, what else could I have done?"

"Nothing.," she growled. "I'm not talking about that, Niall outmaneuvered all of us. I'm referring to you fighting with Eric about having Jason's daughter come and use the cluviel dor for you." My mouth dropped open. I'd totally forgotten about Eric having the cluviel dor. That's what I was upset about. "There's no danger to her for simply trying and yet you beg for death."

I snapped my mouth shut. "It's my choice and one you said you supported, if I'm not having serious memory problems." I was, but I wasn't about to admit that. "I wanted this before Eric even mentioned the cluviel dor."

"I do support it, but Eric has concerns and with Thalia basically holding vigil out there," she gestured angrily the door, "berating Eric every time he even moves in your direction, he's going to try everything, everything he can before he takes your life."

Thalia had filled Pam in on her history when our relationship became too close to ignore so Pam knew why Thalia was so upset at the thought of Eric changing me.

"Thalia's opinion doesn't count here," I said loudly enough that if Thalia were in the sitting room, she would hear me. "All that matters is what Eric and I want. Thalia lost a community and a family she loved when she was made vampire. I don't love the sera fae or the fairies and they most certainly don't love me. I want to be separated from them. It'll be a relief when it's over."

"We know that, but Eric is convinced that you'll resent him if he changes you when there's even one other option he didn't try. Unfortunately, we're running out of time."

I sighed, it was clear from the worried looks they all had been giving me from the first moment I woke up here that they all expected me to drop dead the next second. I'd been ignoring it, knowing how hard it was to sit at the beside of a very ill loved one. It appeared that I couldn't ignore it any longer.

"I'm not going to die tonight, Pam. You don't need to be so dramatic."

Pam's eyes flared, "You clearly haven't seen yourself recently, Sookie. You're gray and your heartbeat is weak. You look, smell and sound like death." I frowned at her and she nodded, "We know when death is coming and you don't have much time, but I was referring to the external pressures Eric is facing."

Once again, I was lost. "What do you mean?"

"Freyda and her maker, Elsobeth, are on their way into town tonight. They've been pressuring Eric to change you. There have been multiple takeover attempts of both kingdoms since you were abducted and Elsobeth has had enough."

"I want Eric to change me." I said again. "I don't see what the problem is here." I closed my eyes to rest my aching head.

"Eric needs to be sure that he's tried everything he can to spare your life, but if he takes too much time, Elsobeth will change you herself." My eyes snapped open and my breath caught. "That's right, Sookie. They need Eric strong and focused and you have been too big of a distraction lately."

Of course they had to threaten him. This couldn't just be a simple, private affair between the two of us, could it? I mean, what would be so wrong with giving us this tiny bit of happiness?

"What can I do?" I whispered, closing my eyes again.

"Go along with Eric. Help him walk through whatever steps he needs to take so if they don't work, he can come to the right conclusion quickly. You, by refusing to let Jason's daughter help, are delaying everything and putting us all at risk in too many ways."

I shook my head and then groaned when Pam's hands slammed onto the bed next to me. Every part of me hurt.

"Dammit, Sookie. Stop being so selfish. Do you think that you are the only one who hurts when you see someone you love suffering? Let us help you!"

I knew I wasn't the only one. I would've know even if I couldn't see and feel their pain, but that didn't give any of us the right to pass on our troubles to a little girl. The price was simply too high. Even with the added pressure, I still couldn't accept potentially exposing Carrie Grace to Niall. There had to be another way, I was just too worn out to see it.

"Not Carrie Grace."

"Why?" Pam demanded.

"She's just a child, she hasn't lived her life yet."

"And so you value her life more than your own because of her age."

I nodded, "I've lived my life, now it's her turn."

"Your life has barely begun," she seethed. "Would you like it if Eric and I placed less value on ourselves because of our age?"

No, I wouldn't. In fact, if I really thought about it, in the back of my mind, I'd always valued their lives more because mine had been finite and theirs would go on forever. But now...I shook my head again.

"Which way is it, Sookie? Which do you value more, those with limited time or those with infinite time? And where do you fit into to the equation?"

I valued myself. I'd ended more lives than I'd ever want to count to preserve my own. In fact, I'd better never die. I'd had a taste of what hell might really be like the two times I'd been with the fairies and I'd never want to go back. But just because I was scared and knowing that Pam and Eric would suffer didn't mean I was wiling to knowingly risk the future of a child.

"Why is it that you have such little regard for your own life?" she hissed when I took too long to answer her.

I made a face in lieu of the shrug that would have caused me too much pain.

I did value myself; I just valued the lives of those I loved more. It was just the way I was built. I'm sure it had something to do with growing up with just about zero self-esteem and hearing every negative thing anyone ever thought about me, but that didn't matter. I liked who I was and that was what mattered. Anyway, my choices had worked in her favor a few times so Pam should be grateful rather than berating me for it.

"I am who I am, Pam. I don't have to explain or rationalize my choices," I said quietly, but there was little conviction behind my words.

"You do to me," Pam snarled and sat back in her chair, glaring at me.

She wasn't finished, but she gave me a much needed break for a while. While I rested, the one thing that kept creeping up on me was the question of where I did 'fit into the equation' as Pam had put it. I'd never thought about that before. Where did I rank on my own scale of worth and value?

After a bit, the bedroom door opened.

"Get lost, Sheila," I heard Pam snap.

"My pleasure," Sheila returned.

I opened my eyes and looked up at Pam.

"You make this right, Sookie. And fast." Pam barked as she stood up and began to stalk out of the room.

"I love you too, Pam." I whispered, knowing she wouldn't be so upset if she didn't care.

She twirled around, glaring at me. "I'm so mad at you, Sookie."

"I know," I said quickly, swallowing back the tears that wanted to come.

"If you love us, then fight. Fight for yourself. Fight for your life with us, whatever form it will take. Accept that those around you want to give something of themselves to help you just like you do for us. Stop being so stubborn and selfish. It's not helping anyone."

With that, she turned and walked out of the room.

Shelia stepped back in and jerked her chin in the direction Pam had gone and spoke in a significantly more neutral voice than Pam's. "What she said."

I couldn't help but laugh as I wiped my teary cheeks on my pillow.

But Pam's words did get me thinking.


	60. Chapter 60

A/N: Hey everyone. Thank you for your great reviews. I haven't responded to them all but I appreciate each one so very much!

I haven't had much time to work on the story recently as I've been enjoying much needed family time. My computer also had a very unfortunate encounter with a cup of chocolate milk and had to be replaced.

The next chapter may be a little while in coming. I'm having surgery on my left eye to address juvenile glaucoma I've been dealing with for half of my life. Fingers crossed!

Chapter 60 It Takes a Village

"Aunt Sookie?" Carrie Grace's sweet voice called tentatively from the sitting room.

I took a few breaths to steady my nerves and calm my painfully pounding heart as relief poured through me at the sound of her voice. They had made it here safely.

I was ready for her, having had the worst of my cuts bandaged and the dried blood lovingly washed away by Eric's soft tongue. A quick glance at my covered arms reassured me that I hadn't bled through any of the new bandages or clothing and I tried to keep still so that wouldn't happen. I could tell from the timidity in her usually happy and carefree voice that Carrie Grace was already scared so the last thing I wanted to do was upset her even more.

"In here," I called out, but my voice failed me and I had to clear my raw throat carefully before trying again. My throat felt like it was as thin and fragile as a piece of tissue paper; in fact, my whole body felt that way.

My brother stepped through the doorway first, looking worried and more serious than I'd ever seen him.

"Oh man," Jason moaned as he shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and glanced wildly around the room before forcing himself to look back at me. "Jesus, Sook. What the fuck did they do to you? You look like shit."

I felt my shoulders droop. I'd done everything I could to look healthier. Eric had helped me wash and dry my hair and then he propped me up with pillows so it looked like I was at least somewhat able to support myself. I never saw my reflection in a mirror but Miriam said I looked much better after she helped me put on a little makeup to give me back some of the color I'd apparently lost. Leave it to my silver tongued brother to tell me the truth.

When I didn't answer his question, he fisted his hands in his pockets. "I don't like that she has to see you like this," he said with his eyes on the floor. "Hell Sookie, I don't like seeing you like this either."

Eric pushed his way past Jason, crossing the room with long, protective strides. When he reached me, he grasped my hand carefully in his and glared at my brother.

"Don't get pissed at me, Man. She didn't get this way on my watch," Jason said angrily.

"Jason!" I scolded as Eric's fangs ran out.

My brother had enough sense to take a step back and hold his hands up, trying to backpedal and placate Eric. Once he no longer had an angry vampire staring him down, he looked back at me. "Look, I know she's here to help you but she's very sensitive like you were as a kid. I'm just worried that this is going to give her nightmares."

I cringed. Jason had no idea what kind of nightmares I was afraid this visit might cause Carrie Grace and I prayed he never found out. Actually, I prayed that Niall never found out that they were here.

Eric bared his fangs again and took one step towards Jason, causing my brother to finally back off and step into the corner to sulk.

I hated that Jason did this. I hated that he always struck out with anger when he was upset or sad about something. It just sucked and always made the situation worse. He always did it at the times when I was at my worst like when Gran…

"Sookie!" Eric's voice pulled me from my pity party. His face was inches from mine, his eyes wide and concerned. He put his hand over my heart and only then did I register the strange and painful palpations beating away in my chest. One second, the beats were too fast, and then there were a few widely spaced heavier beats. The sensation between the slower beats was like missing the last step while going down a set of stairs. Something was supposed to be there, but instead, there was nothing but emptiness.

We looked into one another's eyes. There was nothing either of us could do but wait and in a few seconds, the rhythm of my heart evened out and I could breathe again. Eric caressed my cheek and eventually I nodded, letting him know that I was all right.

I had to ignore Jason. This was his way of handling things. I knew that. He'd never been able to process and deal with his feelings right away. I glanced over at him and found him looking ashamed and deeply worried and quickly realized that I'd actually rather have him angry instead of treating me as though I was on my deathbed. Of course, that's exactly what this bed would be for me if this didn't work, but I still didn't want to be treated that way.

To be honest, I wasn't sure if I wanted this to work. The idea of being tied only to Eric as his child was so tempting that any other unknown option was scary and quite undesirable. Once I'd stopped fighting for control at every turn, I found that I didn't have the strength to go bravely into the unknown alone anymore. I needed the promise of having him in my future and the unknown couldn't offer me that security.

Eric was the one who needed this. He needed to follow these steps, and with Pam's help, I'd finally agreed to stop getting in his way. I'd been able to let go completely for a while, but now that the wheels were in motion and the decisions were made, my gut wrenching fear for Carrie Grace had returned in spades.

Eric placed a lingering kiss on my forehead and I allowed my eyes to close as I was swept up in the stream of his emotions. With his support, I could let go of the torrents of fear and pain that hounded my every moment. There was an immediate sense of relief from both of us as I once again handed him the reins.

This was the ultimate expression of trust for me, letting him be responsible for the safety of this little girl when I knew just how much he would be willing to trade to save me. If Eric had been given a choice, he never would have let me show him what I was willing to give up in order to save his life. Now I was making the choice to let him show me what he'd be willing to do to save me. It was terrifying. Trusting him with my own body and soul was easy compared to this. After a lot of talking, Pam had helped me realize that I needed to trust that he would do what was right for us and I did, but I was still scared.

My greatest concern for Carrie Grace was that Niall and his fairies were still watching me like they had when I first came back to Louisiana and the way they did while I was in Faery. I was never alone there, never out of sight of at least one pair of eyes and that turned out to be a really hard feeling to shake. Even though I couldn't sense their minds, I was still sure that someone was outside, or even within this still unwarded building, just waiting and watching. It was an irrational fear since they'd already gotten what they wanted from me, but my fear had very rational roots. Eric understood once I explained myself and he found a way to ease the worst of my worries.

That 'way' walked in a few seconds later holding Carrie Grace's hand in his larger one.

Hunter.

He'd been working tirelessly trying to track down Pele and 'Eleu since the battle, and although he wouldn't tell me about it, I was sure he'd had a recent altercation with at least one of the sera fae that had forced him to abandon his search. He'd been able to retrieve the cluviel dor from the safe in our house and he assured me that Dermot was nowhere to be found on or around our property.

With one phone call, Eric made sure that Carrie Grace and Jason didn't have to be seen coming here at all. Hunter could terraport with them directly to the front door and with the right use of tents placed at every entrance to the building, their arrival could be hidden from just about any fairy who might be watching. Eric had even removed any and all non-essential personnel from the building to protect her identity as much as possible.

Carrie Grace's eyes widened and her hand tightened on Hunter's when she caught sight of me in the bed. She and Hunter were communicating telepathically and when she looked at me expectantly, I grimaced and Eric told her that I couldn't hear her because I was sick.

She pouted and then nodded to something Hunter told her. Slowly, she walked to my bedside and climbed up so that she was sitting in the middle of the bed, facing me.

"The fairies hurt you?" she asked, her cornflower blue eyes glittering with the tears she was holding back.

I tried to control my breathing as I nodded and did everything I could to not think about my time with them but a few things must have slipped through because Carrie Grace's lower lip trembled and I heard Hunter's teeth grind together in anger.

Looking away from her, I focused desperately on Eric's face, the one thing I could depend on to keep my thoughts off the horrors that lurked in my mind. Eric's eyes never left mine as though he knew I was using him as my lifeline.

Hope still flowed through his side of the bond, but every few seconds, that hope was tainted by concern and anger. I tried to ignore Eric's darker emotions and focus on the hope instead.

Hunter stepped closer to the bed and accepted the cluviel dor from Eric.

"Carrie Grace, you remember what we talked about before. About how you might be able to help Aunt Sookie." Carrie Grace nodded. "Now, you also remember that this," Hunter held out the cluviel dor, "will grant you one wish that can help someone you love, but that you have to be very careful about what you wish while you're holding it." She nodded again, taking Hunter's words and the situation very seriously.

"Good," Hunter said and then he held out a piece of paper with large printed words on it, words that when strung together would create one simple wish that could change my life significantly.

Apparently, everyone had been agonizing over the exact wording she should use ever since Hunter brought the cluviel dor from Hana. With a few modifications suggested by Mr. Cataliades, they had finally come to a decision.

I didn't look at the paper, and I hadn't given any input, already having proved to myself that I wasn't thinking very clearly.

Hunter handed her the note, "Read it to yourself," he instructed. She did so and he nodded. "Good," he praised. "Do you want that? Do you want that for Sookie?"

"Yes," she answered, but I heard a note of trepidation in her voice. I looked at Hunter, hating that I was out of the loop.

Hunter listened to Carrie Grace for a few more moments and then nodded. "She'll be alright, she's just worried about you and her anxiety is making it harder for her to block you out. Your pain is especially upsetting to her."

I reached out to her with a shaky hand, wanting to tickle her pink-socked foot to lighten the atmosphere, but I stopped myself when I remembered how touch intensified thoughts. Instead I gave her a smile. "You'll do fine, honey," I told her confidently.

She nodded and then turned at something she heard from Hunter and held out her hand to take the cluviel dor. The whole room seemed to pause in anticipation.

The moment her fingers flexed around it, the metal began to glow, causing the rest of us to gasp in shock. Carrie Grace smiled down at the cluviel dor, then placed it against her cheek and whispered something none of us could hear.

The results were instantaneous.

I sighed in deep relief as the constant pain lifted from my body and disappeared. I felt lighter, relaxed and free. I'd forgotten what it felt like to be without the pain and I pulled Eric's hand to my chest while I basked in the blissful sensation of simply being able to bend my arms and touch him without pain.

It was silent for a second after the light faded from the device and then everyone started talking at once.

"Quiet," Eric commanded while studying my every motion. I knew exactly what he needed to know so I shook my head in silent answer. Whatever miracle the cluviel dor had done to remove my pain, it hadn't given me back my energy. I pushed up the sleeves of my nightgown and saw that the small cuts had been healed. Eric carefully removed one of the bandages to reveal the flawless skin underneath. My wounds were all healed and I was free of pain, but I was still bone-tired.

"What exactly did she wish?" Eric demanded of Hunter. His anguish bubbled through the bond and I tried to calm him the best I could but he ignored me completely.

Hunter, who was still staring at Carrie Grace and the cluviel dor, shook his head. "Nothing. She didn't wish anything. There wasn't time. It must have responded to her general emotions and her desire to have Sookie's injuries be healed. It was a wordless and thoughtless wish driven simply by her emotions."

Eric turned to Carrie Grace and leaned down. "What do you want for your Aunt Sookie?" he asked gently, although his emotions were anything but gentle.

"I want everyone to stop hurting her. I don't want her to hurt anymore," Carrie Grace's answer was simple and honest.

"Fintan must have had the Cluviel Dor created to respond this way," I said. "He knew how dangerous it was for Gran to have, so he removed all the possibilities for error and let it respond to the heart's desire of the wisher." I turned to Carrie Grace, "You did a good job, Honey, but what did you say to it?"

"I told him that we love him too," she answered simply, smiling back down at the cluviel dor.

"Too?"

"Yes, when it lit up, I heard him telling us that he loves us. It felt so good, kind of like a hug when I'm really sad." She glanced up at Jason and he moved closer to her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you, Carrie Grace. Thank you for telling me that and for healing me. I feel so much better," I said as I focused on the relief that I did have from the absence of the wounds and the pain.

Eric removed his hand from mine, turned away from us and stalked out of the room, followed closely by Pam. Jason took Carrie Grace's hand to urge her off of the bed.

"It's time to go, Sweetie," he said gently. "Aunt Sookie needs to rest now."

He looked back at me and if I could still read his mind, I was sure I'd hear him wondering if he'd ever see me alive again. When Carrie Grace looked up at her dad with concern, I made sure to be thinking that I knew Eric would take care of me. She glanced out into the sitting room and then back to me and gave me a slight smile.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," Hunter promised me as he led them quickly out the door.

"Be careful," I whispered and received a tight grin and a nod in response.

As soon as they were gone, I relaxed back into the pillows, dismayed by how tired I was from just a few minutes of trying to look lively. At least I was able to curl up in a ball now that I wasn't hurting anymore. Maybe I could actually find some real peace. I turned onto my side, pulled my legs up as high as I could get them and let my head sink into the pillow.

"That was our final option," Eric's voice filtered through to me. He sounded resigned.

"I don't believe that. Have Hunter try again to contact Pele or 'Eleu. You should go with him. They might listen to you."

"Enough, Thalia. I've done everything I can. I won't question myself in the future and neither will she. It's time."

There was silence for a while. "May I see her?" Thalia asked, her voice sounding tired and despondent.

"You have five minutes. Don't upset her," he growled.

A few moments later, Thalia stepped into the room. She looked radiant, dressed in her sera fae clothing and jewelry, complete with two gleaming serpentine armbands. She carried a white box that held, I was sure, the fourth armband she had promised me before she took her sabbatical.

"I wanted to give you this," she said, not meeting my eyes.

I didn't put on a show for her, she could read my mind and I was too tired to hide anything anymore. She was an adult; she could handle whatever I was thinking about.

"Thank you, Thalia," I said, gesturing to the box. "And thank you for fighting for me, but I'm ready for this. I know you didn't want it, but I do. Please don't upset Eric anymore."

Thalia grimaced at my words and then perked up, turning to look out into the sitting room. I could hear Eric talking to someone in a raised voice, but couldn't hear what was going on. A moment later, he stepped into the room and kissed me on the forehead.

"Sookie, 'Eleu has been spotted at your home in Hana. I'll send Hunter to talk with her and if that doesn't work, I'll come right back up to you." My breath caught. The promise in his words and in his burning eyes wasn't hidden. He was going to change me tonight…in a few minutes, unless something drastic happened.

I was afraid to have Hunter going back into sera fae territory, but I let Pam's words from earlier wash over me. He would want to try to help me, so I had to let him. Instead of worrying, I focused on the excitement that was running through me at the thought of what was to come between Eric and I. This is what I wanted.

Eric bent down to kiss my lips and for a moment, it was as though we were alone. He wasn't ready to admit it just yet, but I could feel his overwhelming desire to change me and to cut me off from my abusive bloodlines. He craved to drink my blood and tie us even closer together.

I found myself hoping that Hunter hit a wall quickly just so Eric and I could kick everyone else out and have a few moments together, just the two of us. Of course our time together would quickly be ruined by the pain of his bite, but he would receive the gift of my blood and then this would all be over. I'd be free. More importantly, I'd be with Eric and only Eric.

"Soon," he promised with his blue eyes blazing and his fangs peeking out and then he zipped towards the door. I had no doubt that he wanted this as much as I did.

Before he reached the door, Pam hurried in. "Elisobeth is here and she's in rare form," she said, not looking at all happy about our guests.

Eric's lips thinned and they both rushed out the door, leaving me with a much happier looking Thalia.

A moment later, Pam returned. She stopped by my bed with her hand on her hip. "Again, Sookie?"

I laughed and the laugh turned into a cough that sounded strange and deep, but didn't cause any pain. My heart thumped in my chest in that disturbing rhythm and then once again reset itself. When it was over, I was no worse for wear.

Pam's eyes widened and she grabbed her phone, ready to call Eric.

"I'm fine." I said quickly, reassuring her as I caught my breath. "And Eric's distraction was not my fault this time. You need to take his phone away." I smiled, feeling lighter now that I had Eric's promise.

Pam relaxed and then glared at Thalia. "A present for me?" she snarked, gesturing to the box Thalia was carrying. "How sweet of you. I'd simply prefer it if you gifted us with your absence. Haven't you bothered Eric enough the last few nights?"

Thalia scowled back and thrust the box at me, snapping off the strings holding it closed before she let it rest on the bed alongside me. I stuck my bottom arm under the pillow to raise my head and then used my free hand to shakily push the top off of the rectangular box. As I had expected, inside was a matching armband in the shape of a coiled snake. It really was a beautiful work of art and intimidating by its age alone, but the casual observer would never imagine that it was so very ancient.

Every groove had been painstakingly polished and the open mouth of the snake had two sharp and gleaming fangs that would rest near my elbow when I wore it. Tiny red jewels sat where its eyes should have been and it appeared to stare blindly up at me. I caressed the coiled back of the snake, feeling the shallow indentations that had been carved into it so long ago. When I looked up to thank Thalia, I lost contact with the cool metal and was stunned to see Pam and Thalia lunging towards me, both staring at the box in horror.

I looked down in time to see that the bracelet had lost its rigid form and had taken on a life of its own within the box. A strangled sound left my mouth but I was unable to pull my hand away before the snake lunged at me.

It was faster than I was. The gleaming body elongated, the mouth opened even further and then snapped shut on the flesh of the middle of my forearm. Both Thalia and Pam's yells accompanied my scream, but my scream died quickly when I realized that there was no physical pain associated with the bite.

The snake's teeth were firmly lodged deep in my flesh, the mouth spanning a third of the way around my arm and the cold body of the snake quickly wrapped around my forearm like a boa constrictor. And yet there was no pain.

I looked up at Thalia, but her shocked expression told me she had no idea what was happening either. Pam was already on her phone, calling Eric and within two seconds, James and Will had run into the room, responding to our alarm.

I tried to pry the snake off my arm, but it wouldn't budge. I couldn't even wedge a finger under the metal body that had quickly taken on the same temperature as my body. It was hard to feel where it began and I ended.

A strange sensation thrummed through my chest and head and anxiety began to choke me as I struggled to free myself. My heart was pounding hard and fast but it couldn't handle the strain. I felt as it skipped beats and pounded in my chest in an inefficient manner, never fully returning to its natural rhythm. I wasn't strong enough to withstand this type of assault anymore.

I moved my hand from the snake to my chest, pulling at my nightgown to help me get a breath, but it didn't help, the room was dimming.

"Sookie?" James leaned over me, staring not at my arm, but at my face. "Sookie!"

I was slow to answer him; gasping for a breath that I could use to talk. "I can't…" I gasped, feeling tears run down the side of my face.

James' gaze flicked from me to Pam, his eyes wide with alarm. "Get Eric back here right now!" he demanded.

The room around me began to swirl and I closed my eyes to cut back on the nausea, trying again to dig my fingers under the unrelenting armband. This was the cause of my immediate problems, I had to get it off. I just had to, but my fingers weren't cooperating.

"I've got him," Pam said and then her voice changed, "Eric. Now. You need to be up here now!" And then her voice faded away as she moved out of the room.

"Sookie, I'm going to try and get it off," James said. Before I could answer, I felt him move my fingers off my arm and begin to work on removing the snake. He stopped after a few unsuccessful tries.

"How long, Pam?" I heard Will call out in a tight, stressed voice.

I didn't hear her reply but James and Will did and they both let out groans of frustration.

James spoke into my ear. "Listen, Sookie. I need you to try and even out your breathing. Take slow, deep breaths. You're hyperventilating and your heart is failing."

"G-get it…off. Please, j-just rip it off," I begged through my tears as the room got darker and my body weaker.

"He can't, Sookie. You must calm down." Will demanded. "Eric will be here in a moment."

James growled. "Thalia. What is this magic? What is its source?"

"I got it from Nakhti, my maker," she responded.

There was silence. Clearly that name didn't mean anything to them, but it terrified me. Why would the Ancient Pythoness send something that was charmed to hurt me? I'd thought she'd been trying to help us.

"Why would your maker want to drain Sookie?" Will demanded.

What? Drain? No! My eyes snapped open and I tried to focus on James, but I couldn't find him through the dark haze. "I'm…it's…" I began.

James helped me, "I don't know how, Sookie, but it's clearly draining you." His hands brushed across my forehead on either side. "Don't worry. Eric will get here in time and if not, Pam and I are here for you. We won't let you go," he promised.

"No," I gasped, pushing at him with weak and numb hands. "Eric! I need Eric!" Eric was supposed to drink my blood. I was supposed to be his, only his. "Take it…rip it off! Break my arm!"

This couldn't be happening. After all this, I couldn't lose Eric now. I loved James, he was Eric's brother and my friend, but I needed to be with Eric and I knew it would kill him to have someone else be my maker.

"Sookie. Little sister. I'm so sorry," Thalia spoke from the dark room, her voice becoming muffled and distant. "I had no idea. I don't understand why she's done this." I gasped for inefficient breaths. The spinning in my head faded and was replaced with nothing as my body and mind was smothered by an inky blackness and became numb. "Eric will be here in time, he's only a few seconds away now. Hold on."

I didn't know if I could, my body was so heavy, I wasn't sure if I was even breathing anymore.

Suddenly, he was there. I couldn't feel him touching me, but the bond told me he was with me.

"Get out," he snapped. "I'm here, Sookie," he said and finally, I let my mind relax into the overwhelming fatigue. "Pam!" Eric demanded in a raised voice that permeated through the fog. "I need that blood. Now!"

My remaining connection to my body faded but I held onto the bond as long as I could, feeling Eric's determination, worry and love. And I knew, as I slipped into nothingness, that he was with me now and that he would do everything he could to keep us together.


	61. Chapter 61

A/N:

Wow, I hope you guys haven't had as much trouble with the FF site as I have the last few days, this is the first time I've been able to access the site in 5 days. I got nervous there for a minute.

Thank you all for your great reviews last chapter and your support with my eye surgery. All seems to be going well so far!

Just to remind you because I mentioned her so very long ago, Emelina or Emily is Eric's first child.

-Gumdrop21 had a good point in her review when she remarked that she thought nothing was supposed to be able to hurt Sookie anymore (a result of Carrie Grace's unspoken wish). I'm not going to answer that just yet, but I wanted to let you know that I will address it in a few chapters. She's on the right track.

-The title and mood for this chapter was inspired/enhanced by A Great Big World's song, "Say Something."

Chapter 61 Say Something

E~

She slipped out of my hands and I watched, frozen in place as my love's cold, limp body slid slowly down my torso and collapsed to the bed so that she was draped over my thigh in an eerily unnatural position.

After my vehement efforts of forcing blood into her, the sudden absence of purpose left me completely adrift.

One could say that she looked like she was sleeping, but she didn't. I knew too well what death looked like, and I was staring right at it. My head spun, a sign of my own blood loss, but I ignored it as I began the process of waiting.

This was not the way it was supposed to happen. I'd seen this moment in my mind many times and it never looked or felt anything like this.

I glanced at the clock. Fifteen minutes had passed since her weak heart stopped beating.

Too long. It was taking too long.

I had yet to feel the stirrings of my blood within her-the promise that she would soon wake and join me in this new life.

The life she had known had ended and so I waited for the sign that her second life was beginning.

I could wait for three days; in fact I would wait joyously once I felt my blood working within her, but until then…I closed my eyes and reached for her, trying to find any tiny hint of our bond or of my blood within her. There was nothing.

I forced myself to extricate my legs from underneath her body. It shouldn't have been so hard to break contact with her. Her skin had cooled minutes ago and the pulse of her life's energy was gone, yet I was still inexorably and painfully drawn to her.

To keep my hands busy, I pulled the tangled blankets and sheet from around her legs and then covered her to her chin, tucking her in meticulously so that only her pale and blood streaked face was still visible.

I'd wash her later…after I knew for sure that she would wake and after I'd dealt with everything else.

She'd hate to be left covered in blood for any amount of time, but she wouldn't know now. She wouldn't know anything for three days.

I closed my eyes and hoped that statement was right. Three days I could tolerate, but…

Eighteen minutes.

I pushed myself onto my knees and my fingers came into contact with something cold and metal. I grasped it roughly, growling to myself, knowing exactly what I'd find.

The cluviel dor.

The all powerful fairy device that had provided her little but false promises, just like everything else related to the fairies.

I hated that I'd wasted valuable time, some of the last precious moments of Sookie's life, putting my hopes in the promise of the worthless device. Pam and I had all but coerced her into going along with my plans when all she'd wanted was for me to change her.

Me.

She'd wanted for me to change her.

Such a simple request really, since I'd been ready to do it for a while now. I'd just been waiting for her to be ready and then ensuring that she wouldn't have any regrets when it was all done.

Regrets…

The sensation of small bits of metal falling from my fingers was the only indication that I had pulverized the useless artifact in my hand. Now that the magic was gone, it was just a piece of metal.

It had always been just a useless piece of metal.

I closed my eyes and visualized that it was Niall's skull I was crushing in my hand and I experienced the first bit of satisfaction I'd felt since the tides turned in the battle with the fairies.

It would feel so good. I could almost hear his blood-curdling screams ringing in my ears.

I'd start with him and move on to the other fairies who had touched what was mine and I wouldn't stop until every drop of blood that they had stolen from her had been purged from the fairy race.

They were the ones who had started this course of events that led to me kneeling here by my wife's lifeless body. I would take the very next opportunity I had to end Niall and I hoped to have Sookie at my side, joining me in the effort of ending her duplicitous kin.

Hoped.

Twenty-one minutes.

Hope was all I had at this point.

The door opened and Pam stepped silently into the room and I knew without even looking that Emelina was with her. Pam stood stiffly near the doorway, not looking at Sookie or myself, but Emelina, my sweet Emily, my eldest child, moved quickly to my side and slid her arms around my shoulders.

"Your love for her overwhelms me," she whispered into my ear. "She is going to be another Elisabeth I of Trastamara. Your Queen. Your equal. Tanto monta, monta tanto."

I ignored Emily's reference to her beloved Queen from her human life who had been seen as an equal in all ways to her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon. Tanto monta, monta tanto, or 'As much as the one is worth, so too is the other,' was the motto of the royal pair and had long been Emily's mantra in her relationship with her lover and child, Gustavo.

All I heard was one word.

Is.

She is going to be…not was.

Her words and use of the present tense gave me hope and her touch brought me comfort that I could only receive, not fully accept.

"It's been over twenty minutes." My words were only just audible.

"She will rise. Your blood is strong. You have made a powerful family and it grows larger and stronger tonight."

I looked up at Pam. She knew everything that had happened and she would tell me the truth. Emily's words were meant only to comfort me. That was her nature and the reason I made her my child.

Pam finally looked at me. "You did the right thing."

Maybe. Maybe not.

I'd been sure of myself at the time, but now I was questioning the convictions that led me to my actions. There were simply too many variables in play to be sure which was the right pathway to take.

I looked at the clock again.

"How long did it take for you to feel us?" Emily asked quietly, her face still pressed to my neck, giving me the comfort of her presence.

I shrugged and shook my head. I hadn't been counting the minutes with either of them. Although I loved them both dearly now, I wouldn't have been too distressed if something had gone wrong when I changed them.

This time was so very different.

But I saw what she was trying to tell me. The transformation usually required a few minutes to take root to the point that I could feel my child, so it wasn't unusual that I couldn't feel her. The difference was that this time I needed assurances that the process had worked.

I was given none.

All I felt was the weight that sat heavily in my chest, a visceral reminder of the dread I had that she might have been stolen from me.

I had no doubt that I'd succeeded in getting more than enough of my blood into her, at least double if not more than what I gave Pam or Emily, but there were other magics at work here and for that, I was partially to blame.

I'd taken a chance, an incredibly tempting chance, and I hoped that it would prove to have been the right choice. I couldn't even think about what might happen if it all went wrong.

The Ancient Pythoness held the rest of the blame, but I couldn't worry about her actions until I was sure that Sookie would rise.

I moved slightly and Emily gave me space, but her dark eyes were still filled with compassion. I'd been able to keep her away the last time I'd thought I lost Sookie, but this time my more emotional child hadn't even bothered contacting me before coming to my side.

I wiped the remaining bits of the metal dust from my hand, stood and gazed down on my love. The weight in my chest opened up into a huge chasm at the thought that she might never wake and return to me.

Emily's arm wrapped around my waist, once again offering me solace and to my surprise, Pam's small hand slipped into mine and grasped my numb fingers with hers.

Their presence kept me afloat as time ticked by slowly, every second moving me closer to one of only two possible answers to my question.

The waiting was pure torture.

This was not how it should be. I remembered how smug I'd felt when it had been Pam's lifeless body laying on the bed with my blood working its way through her body. I'd left her behind before I felt my blood wake in her. I simply knew it would work. There hadn't been any question. I'd only felt satisfaction and excitement to greet her in three nights when she rose as my child. There had been no doubt in my mind that she was already mine.

I felt none of those emotions tonight as I gazed down on the pale body of my wife.

She'd been through more than anyone should have to face in the last two weeks alone and I couldn't shake the feelings of pure terror that had been coursing through the bond as I sped to her side, cursing every security measure that cost me precious seconds.

I'd only felt that kind of fear and despair coming from her two times before and it shook me to my bones. She was usually so strong, even when faced with insurmountable odds, that to feel her so scared had pushed me to the edges of my own sanity.

At the thought of her fear, my gaze slowly left her unanimated face and fixated on the doorway to the sitting room. Pam's hand tensed in mine.

Thalia.

The fairies may have started this, but the Ancient Pythoness had obviously seen it coming and she had inserted herself into our lives indelibly through her actions.

I needed answers and I would have them.

Pam and Emily held tight to each of my arms, trying to restrain me as I began to make my way towards the oldest vampire in my kingdom with every intention of venting my anger on her.

"Eric, you need blood," Pam hissed in my ear.

I paused and while keeping my eyes on my goal, I reached down and took Emily's hand from my arm, bringing her wrist toward my mouth. I paused momentarily, allowing her to deny me if she wanted, but she completed the action for me, cooing words of love and support in my ear. I caressed the back of her hand and then bit into her flesh, drawing a few mouthfuls of her blood. I did the same with Pam and within seconds, I felt stronger. I was stronger, having my blood returned to me from my children.

The moment I released Pam's hand, I made my way towards the doorway again. My children's influence did nothing to stop my progress despite their best efforts, but just as I passed the threshold, the barely noticeable thrum of awareness within my blood brought me to a full stop.

Sookie.

I turned around so quickly that Pam and Emily stumbled next to me as they tried to recover their footing.

I felt her…my blood within her. It was soft and quiet, just a faint sensation carried on a light breeze, but it was there.

_She_ was there.

I smiled down at her, satisfaction and excitement blooming in my chest.

This would work.

She would rise.

Three nights. I could wait three short nights now that I knew for certain that she would rise.

Pam and Emily relaxed beside me and in that brief moment of inattention, I made my break for the sitting room where I knew Thalia was waiting.

I had a score to settle.


	62. Chapter 62

A/N: Sorry for the delay. I've been dealing with a major case of writer's block. I have to thank my friend Jennifer for helping me realize that my first (of many) attempt at this chapter was way off target. I also have to thank Nedbella who checked up on me and gave me some very wise words of encouragement and support. Thank you!

**Anyone who is concerned about the cluviel dor wish and the consistency of the story line can look back at the A/N at the beginning of Chapter 61. I haven't been suffering from memory loss or inattention (that I'm aware of at least). I simply see things in grays rather than black and white and I like to leave false breadcrumb trails for you to follow once in a while. I know it can be a little frustrating, but have faith that I will explain what's happening ****very soon.**

The last time we heard from Pam, she had just turned Miriam. I thought it appropriate to bring this back to her point of view for a little while. The title refers to the length of time in which the events of this chapter occur.

Chapter 62 Three Minutes

P~

Eric's anger abated and was replaced by satisfaction and hope as he gazed down at his wife.

Thank fuck he could feel his blood in her.

It always disturbed me when Eric was overly emotional. He was one of the most resilient vampires around and until Sookie came into the picture, he'd been steady and predictable. Up until he'd met her, he'd also been adamant that vampires shouldn't ever share blood with anyone outside of their vampire bloodline. Then one day, while he was away with her in Dallas, my world had been shaken to its core. I'd known he'd wanted her, anyone who got close enough to smell her sweet blood would want her, but I'd never thought he'd actually break one of his cardinal rules to get her. I blame Bill. If he hadn't been in the picture, Eric wouldn't have felt the pressure to get his blood into her. She would have come to him on her own.

Of course neither of us knew at the time that Sookie was more than human and it had been too late to alter the course of events by the time we learned the truth. Sookie's blood had already irrevocably altered the natural balance of magic within him. At least that's my theory.

Vampire blood was supposed to triumph over all others (that is any blood we would dare to drink repeatedly), but Sookie's blood had managed to exert its own control over Eric even before she became a sera fae. Initially I blamed his distraction fully on the lure of her blood, but now I understand that he was slowly falling in love with her too. The learning curve was slow for both of us on that one since it was a first for either of us.

Once she became sera fae, the effects of her blood had been even more pronounced, with her blood giving him resistance to sunlight and silver. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to seek out another source of her magical blood. I had one right in front of me in the form of Hunter, but I believed that there would always be a price to pay and so I didn't pursue him. There is give and take when combining powerful blood and whereas Eric was in love with her, he was willing to take the risk. I, however, preferred to always be in control of myself and my blood.

I'd sensed early on in Eric and Sookie's relationship that he was changing for the worse. I didn't really understand why at the time, but I was sure enough of the dangers that I had even gone behind Eric's back to try and warn Sookie off. It turned out that she cared enough about him to be worried, but neither of them would listen to me. They were apparently meant to be together, but their road to this point had been far from smooth.

Hopefully Eric would be able to find more balance when Sookie rose as a vampire. I knew I was more focused now that Miriam was my child rather than just my lover and she was 100% human and thus, not a risk.

As we stood there, side-by-side, Sookie's scent began to alter. The vampire blood in her body was changing her very nature. I cocked my head and sniffed at the air, hoping beyond hope that I wouldn't find the scent I sought.

In that one moment of distraction, Eric broke free from us and continued on his way to confront Thalia. We moved with him, but there was no way we could stop him before he reached her. I wasn't as worried as I had been a few minutes before. Eric was in control now that he had sensed his blood waking in Sookie. He wouldn't make the colossal mistake of seeking a physical confrontation with Thalia. He was still angry, furious even, at the Ancient Pythoness**'** unwelcome intervention, but he was thinking clearly again now that he knew Sookie would rise. With that clarity, however, would come the inevitable worry about Sookie's uncertain future.

Much had happened in the last half hour that he hadn't yet had the chance to process. Some was Eric's doing, and some, that of the Ancient Pythoness.

"Explain yourself." Eric used his most forceful, yet restrained voice when he'd come to a standstill in front of Thalia.

Thalia stood with her back to the wall that led to Eric's private office. The long, white box that had held the enchanted serpent armband hung limply at her side, clutched in her tense hand. Her shoulders were slightly hunched and her dark eyes betrayed an internal sense of fatigue I rarely saw on Thalia, especially when she wore the traditional clothing of her people.

My eyes wandered to the serpent armbands she usually wore with such reverence. They still adorned her arms and they seemed to gleam brighter than ever. I found myself waiting for them to move.

Thalia met Eric's eyes, and although she was clearly upset, she didn't cower from him in the slightest. This would generally impress me, but Thalia was a unique vampire in many respects.

"I did not know of her intent," she said emphatically.

"Do you know of it now?" Eric questioned with a tight jaw. His eyes were hidden from where I stood by his long sweep of hair, but I was sure they were bright with the repressed rage I felt from him.

Thalia closed her eyes briefly, "I smelled her blood seconds after Sookie's heartbeat ceased."

Emily glanced back and forth between us. She was the only one who didn't understand the meaning behind Thalia's words since she had arrived a few minutes too late but Eric and I knew what Thalia was referring to.

I clenched my teeth together at the memory of watching helplessly as the enchanted snake tunneled deep into the flesh of Sookie's arm and dissolved, magically delivering ancient and powerful vampire blood into her system. It had happened so fast that there was nothing either of us could have done.

The scent of the ancient blood faded quickly as it was eclipsed by the fresher scent of Eric and Sookie's own blood, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. Any amount of her blood could easily have an impact. The question was what that impact would be on Sookie.

We weren't even sure how the reintroduction of the last two bags of her own donated blood would affect her but Eric had been adamant that he wanted to give them to her in the hopes that they would help preserve some of her sera fae gifts. He'd been planning on doing this from the moment we knew the blood wouldn't be able to save her life. Even after her most recent treachery, he still believed the Ancient Pythoness' warning that Sookie would need it one day but after it all was done, this was the choice that had weighed on him the most.

As he'd waited for his blood to wake within her, he began to think that giving her back her own magical blood might have impaired the ability for the vampire blood to take root in her dead body.

The very thought nearly paralyzed him and, at that point, he hadn't cared who's blood it was that saved her.

Nothing else mattered if she didn't rise.

"And?" Eric demanded again in response to Thalia's less than helpful observation.

"She does nothing without reason."

Eric's only reaction was a slight flexing of his fingers but Emily and I were bowled over by the intensity of his emotions.

If the Ancient Pythoness' blood trumped Eric's, as it very well might by age alone, the consequences could be beyond our control. Eric had felt his blood in her, but the connection was apparently weak and so it might present as that of a sibling or lover rather than that of a maker. I'd never heard of this happening before so only time would tell.

I couldn't even imagine having to explain this to Sookie when she woke. She would be devastated and I'd already been concerned about how she'd handle being a young vampire given her emotional nature. Many didn't make it through the first few years.

Sookie had wanted to become a vampire for the sole reason of getting out from under the tyrannical influence of the fairies and sera fae and now she could be facing the possibility of stepping right into another situation where she had no control over her life.

She'd been willing to become Eric's child due to their deep love and trust, and I think she would have eventually relented had it been James or myself who'd become her maker, but having her tied to anyone else would devastate both of them.

She wouldn't meet the sun, she was far too strong and stubborn for that, but it would destroy her none-the-less.

"Explain why she would warn me that another might change Sookie if I didn't when she was planning on doing it all along," Eric requested. His voice had lost some of its heat. Emily stepped closer to him and I found myself moving closer too, sensing that we needed to present a united front right now.

Thalia looked down at the box and finally let it fall to the floor with a hollow clatter. She studied it for a while and then looked back up at Eric.

"I see two possibilities. One, the bracelet was meant as a last resort option to save Sookie if she were to die before you changed her." She spoke quickly to cut off Eric's inevitable response, "Sookie was very ill, as you were aware. Her heart could have stopped at any moment."

She was right. I had almost called Eric when Sookie's heartbeat had become dangerously irregular, but it wasn't until the snake bit her that her heart really began to give out. Thalia's theory had potential, but there had to be more to it. If the Ancient Pythoness foresaw that Sookie would die without Eric around, why didn't she see that he would get to her in time to turn her?

Another thing that worried me was why the Ancient Pythoness cared in the first place whether Sookie lived or died.

"Your second theory?" Eric said, dismissing Thalia's first theory as quickly as I had.

"She wants her."

It was a simple answer to both of our questions. If the Ancient Pythoness wanted Sookie, then she must have seen that she would rise as a very formidable vampire. She would no doubt want Sookie tied to her if she did become as unique as was possible given the events of her turning and her powerful nature before she was turned.

Eric's rage was so intense at her confirmation of his concerns that not even Emily dared to go near enough to try and comfort him now. He began muttering in Old Norse and picked up the closet object, a vase Sookie usually kept filled with fresh flowers from the garden her Gran had started at what was now Jason's house, and threw it past me at the wall closest to their bedroom. The vase had been sitting empty for a few weeks now and honestly, I was surprised it had lasted this long.

Eric was staring at the remains of the vase, calculating his next plan of action and Emily's eyes were glued on Eric so neither of them saw Thalia sway where she stood. She looked quickly from the door to the hallway to the door of the bedroom but I didn't realize just how much trouble we were in until she lowered her head in a slight bow to whatever she had sensed. I'd never seen Thalia bow to anyone except for Eric, Sophie-Anne and Filipe, but I knew there was one other person she would always bow to and when I put two and two together, it became clear what had shaken Thalia.

I took a step towards Eric. He sensed my unease and turned towards me. I, in turn, looked at Thalia.

"How long do we have?" I asked her. Eric narrowed his eyes and his muscles tensed.

Thalia's eyes glazed over for a moment as she turned her attention to her bond with her maker. "Not long," she answered in a dreamy voice.

"Can you-" I began, but she shook her head.

"She's always blocked the bond unless she needed something from me. I just know she's in the city and rapidly getting closer." She frowned, "She must want you to know she's coming or she wouldn't have opened the bond at all."

Eric pulled out his phone and sent a text to Will and James. All the supernatural beings in the kingdom had been on high alert since Wu's takeover attempt. The last thing we needed was for some rabid Were or young vampire to attack the Ancient Pythoness as she arrived.

Don't get me wrong, there was no doubt in my mind that Eric would do everything he could to keep Sookie by his side even if she was in fact not his child. The rest of us, except for Thalia, would stand with him. Thalia would unfortunately have to side with her maker and that would effectively seal our fate if the Ancient Pythoness wanted an altercation.

If.

Eric and I exchanged a glance. Neither of us believed that she would want to enter into physical confrontation with us; she'd waited too patiently for all the pieces of this convoluted puzzle to fall into place and she'd had too many chances to end any of us.

No. She was coming for another reason. And we would let her.

S~

A strange sensation echoed within my consciousness. It wasn't something tangible, just a whisper that drew my absolute attention like that horribly creepy feeling you get when your instincts are warning you that danger is near. I knew the sensation was there and that I shouldn't ignore it, but I couldn't find its source.

Slowly, the sensation evolved into something more powerful. It grew so large and shrill that it was everything to me, encompassing me, smothering me, impelling me to satisfy its silent demands.

It was my everything before I was even aware of my body or my environment and long before I had any independent thoughts of my own.

Slithering through my body, it woke me, binding me to its will…squeezing…restraining…leading.

_Satisfy me. Come to me. Answer me. _

It pulsed within my very cells and made itself the sole driving force that woke me from my rest.


	63. Chapter 63

A/N: Thank you to everyone who continues to support this story, your kind words keep me going.

Chapter 63 Blurred Lines

_Satisfy me. Come to me. Answer me._

_It pulsed within my very cells and made itself the sole driving force that woke me from my rest._

Through the overpowering haze of this force, I slowly began to process other information.

Eric.

Eric was feeling threatened. Anger and worry ran through the bond, flooding me with his emotions as though they were my own. Our bond was stronger and more vibrant than ever.

Unintelligible voices rang in my ears, drawing me even more concretely back into my body. I opened my eyes and closed them again quickly after discerning that I was alone in our bedroom at the headquarters; the voices were coming from the sitting room. Although Eric had always been able to hear though these walls, I never could before. That and the deep rest from which I was waking could mean only one thing.

I was rising as a vampire.

Anxiety thrummed through my body. It felt different. I should be scared and worried but instead, I felt as though I were nearing an imminent battle. My instincts told me to prepare to fight but my mind screamed for caution causing a disharmony that urged me to flee from my death bed and find comfort with Eric.

_Yes. _

_Go. _

_Satisfy me. Come to me. Answer me. _

My eyes snapped open as I realized that the driving force I'd felt within myself was not part of a nightmare.

I'd felt something like this before. It was familiar but more invasive than anything I could ever have imagined. I didn't care for it at all. What in the world was it?

I needed to get to Eric. He would know how to help. He would know what this was.

_Go. _

The aching desire that was not my own agreed. It wanted me to go.

Go? Go to Eric? Oh, yes, I understood. I smiled and relaxed, chiding myself for not figuring it out faster. When I didn't perceive it as something nefarious, the pull felt…good, natural and welcome. Eric must be calling me. I was rising as a vampire and this pull must be the result of our new maker to child blood connection.

This is what I'd wanted. I'd wanted to be connected to him and although I was feeling his emotions through our bond, the call must travel along a separate pathway. It must feel so different simply because it was new. I was being drawn to my maker…to my love.

I flexed my fingers and arms under the heavy bed covers. They were slow to respond as though my body were still waking but they felt better with every second that passed. My hands opened and skimmed down my chest and stilled. My nightgown was rough around the neck and upper chest and as my hand brushed along the material, Eric's scent filled the room. I could feel through the bond that he hadn't moved any closer, so it must be his blood that I smelled. I'd never caught his scent from his blood alone before, but it made me smile. He smelled just like he tasted and I found myself craving to taste his mouth, his skin...all of him.

Everything would be different now. Just like I could hear and smell more acutely, I would be able to perceive him in new ways and I was eager to begin exploring him with my enhanced senses.

I slowly worked my hands to the top edge of the tightly tucked sheet and blanket and pushed them down, feeling fresh air rush in to caress my body. This, I was sure, was so much better than rising underground.

I stretched, feeling my body sluggishly respond to my commands. My muscles moved and I purred with joy at the lack of pain the movements elicited. In fact, my body felt wonderfully powerful as though I could fly to Eric if I wanted.

Excitement thrummed through my body. Maybe I _could_ fly. Eric could. After a moment of fruitlessly trying to levitate, I learned that I had not inherited that gift, at least not yet. It wasn't too big of a surprise to figure that out but while I was reaching out for magical powers I learned that I could no longer teleport. I had, however, regained my telepathy.

That was a hard pill to swallow. While I relied on my telepathy almost as much as I did my ears or my sense of touch, Eric and I had been given an enhanced life together with the ability to teleport to Hawaii. I was grateful for any second we could have together given that I'd been sure I'd never see him again just a few days ago, but we would both dearly miss those extra precious hours we'd stolen in Hana.

I was distracted from my brief melancholy by a spike in the emotions coming from Eric. My shields were still down, so I simply focused in on Pam's mind since it was very clear at the moment.

As I listened to her thoughts, I gasped and sat straight up, running my right hand up and down my forearm where the snake had bitten me. My heart swelled as I watched her memories of Eric cradling me against his body, biting viciously into his wrist and feeding me his blood. I cringed at the sight. It wasn't pretty. Blood dripped down my chin and neck and I found myself uncomfortable seeing my body so…lifeless. But death isn't supposed to be pretty.

Then he held out his hand to Pam and she handed him a bag of the blood I had donated. He grabbed it and ripped a hole in the side and began to pour the thick blood into my mouth.

I understood why he chose to give me the blood. It fit with the Ancient Pythoness' warning and his concerns that I might be upset at losing my sera fae traits, but as quickly as Pam thought though the events, I explored the ramifications of his actions.

The snake had drained me of both my sera fae and fairy blood, but Eric had replaced it after he had given me his own. I had a moment of worry that he might have reconnected me to the sera fae. That thought was unnerving, but there were possible positive outcomes of the situation too. I had my telepathy and maybe, just maybe, even though I had some of my own blood again, I might no longer be connected and thus no longer at the mercy of either of my bloodlines. I might have some of their gifts but none of the ties to the communities. It had happened for Thalia and I'd already learned that I couldn't teleport so it might have happened for me too.

It seemed too good to be true and the very thought of drawing the sera fae's attention back to me was foolhardy so I had to force myself to reach out to test if my hopes were now my reality. I wanted nothing to do with them or the fairies ever again.

Giddy relief pulsed through me when I found that I couldn't feel a thing from the sera fae. My connection with them had been completely destroyed.

I was free!

Just then, I felt another tug from the call that was pulling me out the door towards Eric. Well, maybe I wasn't completely free, but this tie was one that I craved.

A moment later, I flinched as I watched Pam remember the enchanted snake sliding into my arm, making a long, distended line under my skin. Eric spilled the dregs of the blood he had been feeding me onto my chest as he tried and failed to wrest the snake out from under my skin but it slid into my flesh and disappeared.

I looked back at my arm in shock. There was no sign of the damage the snake had caused of course, but according to Pam, the most serious damage it might have delivered was not visible. In the moment it disappeared, she'd smelled the Ancient Pythoness' blood.

What if?

What if Pam's fears were realized and the Ancient Pythoness was my maker rather than Eric? He'd given me his blood first but hers was much older.

My head dropped into my hands and I pressed my palms into my eyes until I saw sparks. Would this never stop?

She did this for a reason and there was no doubt in my mind that she'd want to take me away to wherever she went as she presided over endless vampire disputes. She'd kept Thalia with her for hundreds of years and now it might by my turn. I could just see myself forced to stand beside her decade after decade…a seer and a telepath. No one would have a chance-especially not Eric and me.

But maybe I was getting ahead of myself. Yes, the call I felt was different from the connection I'd had with Eric, but that didn't necessarily mean it wasn't still between the two of us. Maybe what Pam smelled was not the Ancient Pythoness' blood but some magic she used to enchant the snake. If it was her magic, it might smell like her.

I knew I could just go and talk this over with Eric, but Pam's thoughts told me that they were just as confused as I was and I wanted to figure this out on my own before facing him. Plus I didn't think I could handle seeing the look in his eyes if we found out this had gone horribly wrong.

Instead, I pushed myself up in the bed and tried to will my fangs to run out. It took me a moment to determine that I'd been trying to shift my teeth into fangs the way I'd done for years. I didn't have any success so it seemed that shifting shapes was one sera fae ability I'd apparently lost. Then I visualized biting into someone's neck and feeling the gush of their hot blood filling my mouth. After a moment I was somewhat frustrated, definitely thirsty and strangely horny but I still didn't have any fangs. Go figure. My vampire hormones worked but my fangs were faulty.

With an irritated sigh, I felt under the edge of the mattress for my dagger. I was obviously on my way to becoming the worst vampire ever. Even Jake Purifoy who'd been a Were before being turned had risen with his fangs ready to bite.

Ignoring the sick feeling of déjà vu, I dug the blade of my favorite iron dagger into my forearm exactly where the snake had bitten me. Blood ran down my arm and dripped onto my legs with a consistency that looked more like my usual blood than Eric's in that vampire blood was very thick and ran slowly and mine was only a little thicker than it used to be. Maybe it thickened with age.

The scents hit me right away. I opened my mouth a little, allowing the air to roll over my tongue as well. The bouquet was rich and reminded me again of the way Eric's blood tasted, but I couldn't discern any specific scents. With more eager anticipation than I expected to feel, I ran my fingertip through the blood, stuck my finger into my mouth and cleaned it with my tongue.

My reluctant fangs ran out the moment I tasted Eric's blood and my body hummed with the excitement of tasting more of him. I looked towards the door and as I did, I caught another taste, which I quickly realized must be two separate flavors. They were too different to have come from the same source. One was sweet and tasted the way Eric described my blood and the other…

I raked my fingernails down my forearm in a brutal action that would normally have left deep red welts if not scratches but now left no trace at all except for pushing some of my blood out of the way. I wanted to rip her blood out of me, purge it from my veins, but it was done. There was nothing I could do to get it out now.

Closing my eyes, I gave a silent sob. _Her_ blood _was_ in me. So _she_ may very well be the one calling me through our shared blood, not Eric. My hopes that this little endeavor might prove otherwise were obliterated. What would we do? Eric could fight against any other vampire with his status and strength, but she was the one vampire no one ever refused, the one no one ever denied.

As I stared dazedly down at my blood-striped forearm, something in the back of my mind told me that I wasn't seeing something I should. My wound had completely healed. I'd made a deep two-inch cut that would have taken even Eric about thirty seconds to heal when he was well-fed, but mine had healed without my even noticing it.

Curiosity enabled with the loathing I felt for my blood had me slicing into my arm again. This time I watched carefully but never actually saw a wound.

There was plenty of blood, but my skin cells seemed to knit themselves back together the moment the blade moved beyond each one. My mouth snapped shut as I appreciated that during this process, I hadn't perceived even the slightest bit of pain.

Vampires felt pain as keenly as humans if not more so, but I felt nothing. Well, I could _feel_. My fingers discriminated shape, pressure, temperature and texture better than ever...but I felt no pain. In fact, I didn't remember anything hurting me at all since…

A thought came to me and I looked at the spot on the bed where I'd last seen the cluviel dor.

Carrie Grace's wish!

She'd wished that nothing would be able to hurt me anymore…she didn't want me to be hurt.

The knife cut my skin, tore through muscle and ruptured blood vessels for a split second. It damaged my body in terribly heinous ways but Carrie Grace wouldn't think of injury in that manner. She was, thankfully, still innocent. She didn't know the various horrific manners in which the human body could be hurt. All she knew of was simple pain learned by every child and what she had seen when she looked at me.

That's how her wish was realized. It removed the pain and the visible damage, but since she couldn't conceptualize it, the wish left out the process in which that damage was received.

She was such a sweet, sweet child. I closed my eyes and took a moment as I was swamped by gratitude towards my brother, his wife and oddly enough, Bubba. They had done a phenomenal job of protecting her body and mind from the cruelties of life.

I wasn't quite sure what this meant for me exactly but it sure looked promising. I might even be more resilient than a typical vampire.

The smile slid off my face as something slammed into the other side of the wall, making the glass of a framed painting vibrate so infinitesimally that I would never have caught it before. What the…

Pam's thoughts broke through my own again, demanding my attention with a wave of alarm and suspicion that flowed through her. The reason for her anxiety became crystal clear very quickly.

I jumped out of bed and whirled around so that my back was to the wall in a defensive posture.

_She_ was coming.

She was coming for me and Eric and Pam were standing between us.

No.

I would not allow this to happen again.

This couldn't be happening again. I closed my eyes, instinctively holding my breath and trying to control the rapid pounding in my chest but it-

Wait…

What?


	64. Chapter 64

Chapter 64 Sookie 4VS

_I closed my eyes, instinctively holding my breath and trying to control the rapid pounding in my chest but it-_

_Wait…_

_What?_

My hand clapped to my chest. There was no mistaking the rapid rhythm that beat under my palm.

How could this be? My tongue felt sharp fangs and my nose identified the blood on the sheets as a mixture of Eric's and my own. There was no doubt in my mind that I had died and that Eric had changed me. I'd seen it in Pam's memories and he would never have left me unless he was sure I was dead and had been given enough of his blood to make a successful change.

And yet my heart beat.

A slight pressure in my chest reminded me that I was still holding my breath, but my body wasn't fighting for air. I waited another few seconds and then took a deep breath. The warm air felt good and necessary, but in a less emergent way than I was used to. I still needed to breathe, but not as frequently as before.

A bubble of laughter burst soundlessly out of my mouth. I clapped my hand across my face to contain it. Laughter was totally inappropriate in this moment, but it was hard to hold it in. I was such a mess. Seriously, how many variations on the theme of supernatural would I express in my lifetime? I must be setting some kind of a record. What version of myself would some advertising agency herald me as? I must have reached at least my fourth generation by now.

I normally wouldn't think it was funny but I could see another side of this situation than I had seen before. Here I was, another hybrid of sorts who was going to have to walk the line between two warring species once again. I would, no doubt, have a precarious existence. The difference was that, this time, my first thought was that my mixed blood might actually help rather than hurt me.

I took a moment to appreciate that I wasn't experiencing the emotions I would have expected to feel. When I should have been feeling frustration, fear and hopelessness, it was hope that blossomed in my chest at the possibility that my mixed blood status might keep me from being controlled by any one of the bloodlines. Maybe both the sera fae and vampire blood would be too diluted to cause me any real problems.

It might explain why I was still standing here rather than running off to find either Eric or the Ancient Pythoness. I'd seen Pam's reaction to being called and I wouldn't be here if either Eric or the Ancient Pythoness had that kind of control over me. And if that really was the truth, I'd happily accept the diluted abilities and whatever undesirable social status that would surely come with it.

A more forceful tug had me looking back at the door, reminding me that while I might not be a full vampire, I still had vampire blood and magic within me. But would it be enough to tie me to either Eric or the Ancient Pythoness?

Just to reinforce my growing sense of hope, I crossed my arms over my chest, planted my feet and pushed back at the sensation, giving it and whoever was at the other end of it the finger. If it was Eric, then he would be happy simply to feel that I had risen and if it was the Ancient Pythoness, she was going to learn sooner or later that I wasn't going to be easy to push me around.

The call returned as soon as I stopped pushing back and it was stronger than ever. I stood stock still for at least ten seconds, refusing to answer it until I decided—_I decided_—to end the anticipation. It was time to find out for sure who was at the other end of this string.

Without another thought, I followed the call and under the stubborn bravado that seemed to come so naturally to me right now, I prayed that it would lead me to Eric.

I'd find out one way or the other pretty quickly.

Leaping onto the bed, I rolled to the other side and sped towards the doorway, moving faster than I knew I could. I'd been fast and strong before, but this was organically different. I'd always felt my energy depleting and being replenished in a steady cycle, but this energy seemed to come from somewhere within me rather than without.

I felt invincible.

Although I only moved a short distance, my body begged for more. I'd been in pain and weakened for so long that I celebrated the smooth and easy movements of my muscles and joints. I even momentarily closed my eyes and turned my palms forward, enjoying the feeling of the air caressing my skin as I ran. The vampire blood within me rejoiced in my movement, multiplying my delight as every step brought me closer to that which it craved.

I neared the door and it automatically slid open. Fresh air rushed into the room and I hummed with delight at the delicious scent of Eric. My eyes blinked open as I stepped into the sitting room.

Four vampires turned to look at me, shock etched into their faces and the next second, I was engulfed in Eric's powerful arms. Whether he came to me or I ran to him, I didn't care. We were together again and that had never felt so good.

"Sookie!" Eric exclaimed.

"Impossible," someone said from behind Eric.

I smiled widely and gazed up into the deep blue eyes that held my heart and soul. Then my knees buckled as I felt the call again.

It wasn't the intensity of the call that disturbed me; it was the confirmation that it wasn't coming from Eric.

I ignored the tiny part of myself that wanted to grieve wildly and instead I shoved away the sensation of the call again and pulled Eric down to me, capturing his lips with mine. I needed to feel him and I wanted to do it without _her_ influence in me. Her intrusion of herself into my life and body threatened to sully what Eric and I were sharing and I would not allow it.

Eric's arms wound around my back and thighs and my legs twined around his hips so that we were almost as close as we could be. My nightdress slid up my thighs and bundled up around my waist. The contrast of his rough jeans with his smooth fingers ignited my physical need for him even more.

His tongue caressed mine in a long stroke and we both moaned. I took my time as I acclimated myself to his mouth. My taste buds identified a flavor that was undeniably Eric that I'd never tasted before. It was unbelievable how very much I'd been missing when I hadn't been able to enjoy this part of him.

Eric growled and his fingers flexed into my flesh when my fangs came into contact with his tongue and lips and I cried out as he pressed his tongue against the tip of one of my sensitive fangs. He only made a small cut, but it was enough. Every cell in my mouth awakened and screamed for more of his delicious blood.

I gave a guttural cry as the ferocity of our actions reached a new high. My back slammed into a wall and I just barely processed the feeling of drywall crumbling around me.

"Eric! Gentle!" An unfamiliar voice spoke from behind Eric.

I grasped his hair more firmly in my fingers and pressed my mouth to his with a passion just short of pure violence. I didn't want nor need 'gentle' right now. Tasting and drinking his blood was the most sensual and desirable thing I'd ever experienced. He was literally giving himself to me one drop at a time and this time I could sense his essence joining with mine. The feeling made me insane with need, joy and lust.

I was so incredibly aroused; the only thing that kept me from giving in to my building orgasm was the fact that _her_ influence had snuck back into my awareness.

Furious at the intrusion, I wrenched my mouth away from Eric's and glared angrily at the door. Her call was getting stronger so she must be close.

"She's not here yet," Thalia said from somewhere over Eric's left shoulder. I'd forgotten anyone else was here. "But you only have a few minutes."

Eric closed his eyes briefly and I gasped as my need and desire for him tripled, but this time, even though I knew he was calling me through the blood we shared and I loved the feeling when it was coming from him, the combination of the two calls was too intense. An emotional hurricane battled within me, pulling part of me in each direction and I knew that if it came down to it, Eric and I would lose. She was too strong.

"Please, Eric. It's too much." I breathed, gripping his shirt at both sides of his chest and twisting it.

Eric opened his eyes and stopped his call. I didn't miss the flash of disappointment that crossed his face before he glanced towards the far side of the room.

I followed his gaze and saw Pam, Thalia and another female vampire I didn't know but felt a connection with none-the-less. Eric was looking at Thalia so I focused on her and as I did so, my blood grew cold.

She stood apart from the other two, backed up against the bookshelves. She moved one shoulder, an action I don't think I would have noticed before, but the slight shift caused the snake bracelets wound around her arms to glimmer in the light.

Thalia. She was to blame for this.

I unwound my legs from Eric's hips but before I even took a step in her direction, his strong arms clamped around me, holding me tight.

"Be still," Eric whispered in my ear. I frowned up at him but he shook his head. "This was not of her doing." We stared at one another for a long moment before I slowly nodded and turned back to Thalia. I wanted to keep my eyes on her.

Eric had other ideas. His fingers cupped my chin and gently stroked along one side of my jaw, requesting my full attention. I turned to face him and met his eyes again. His face was set with serious lines.

"We don't have much time," he said as his fingers caressed my cheek.

"I know," I said. "I felt your emotions and I've been listening to Pam."

His eyes widened slightly. "I can't feel you. Open the bond," he demanded.

I frowned again and felt the bond more carefully. Somehow, it was closed on my end. I could feel him more clearly than ever before but he apparently couldn't feel me. That explained why he hadn't come to me the moment I woke. I tried to open the bond and as I did, some of the tension in his eyes lessened.

"Good. You have your telepathy?" he asked, barely opening his mouth as he spoke.

"Yes," I breathed.

"Open your mind to me."

I closed my eyes and smiled as I dropped the wall around my mind. His forehead lowered to mine when our minds met in a swirl of love, regret and worry. I felt a tear run down my cheek. It took connecting with his mind to feel the emotions I had been expecting.

"Not now," Eric instructed and I understood that we needed to deal with the Ancient Pythoness before we let our guard down any more than we already had.

"I know," I responded as I wiped the tear away with a quick brush of my hand. Eric caught my hand and we both looked down at the light pink streak on my knuckle.

Eric deliberately wiped the tear onto his shirt, resisting any temptation it held for him.

"I need more information about this situation before we meet with her. Show me everything you remember from the moment the snake bit you," he instructed and I did as he asked, not minding his terse approach. We didn't have the time for niceties.

I was able to watch Eric's recent memories and see him assimilate my experiences with his own.

His hand slid up to the pulse in my wrist, glided over the sticky blood on my forearm, tracing a pathway over the spot where I had cut myself and then stilled over my heart for a moment.

He shook his head in amazement. I could hear a million theories forming in his mind.

"Later," I said with a small smile, teasing him only a little. We would marvel at all that had happened when we had time.

He nodded and gently caressed his lips across mine. "Yes. Later." He responded and his words caressed me and gave me strength.

He took half a step away from me and in so doing; he invited the others into our conversation.

"You are able to resist her call." Eric said to me and then without looking away from me, he spoke to the room and to Thalia in particular. "Is it remotely possible that Sookie will be able to resist any commands placed upon her?"

"I won't let her make me do anything," I responded stubbornly and I saw a quick flash of worry and pity in his eyes. It was the look you'd give a beloved fool.

"You won't be able to avoid her," Thalia said in a heavy voice. "Her call is stronger to you than Eric's. She will be able to influence you."

"I'm still here, aren't I?" I said, stubbornly ignoring the thrill of fear that squeezed my heart at her words.

"But it's getting harder to ignore," she stated, not quite making eye contact. I wasn't sure if she was avoiding my eyes so as not to enrage me like you might do with a wild animal or because she was ashamed of the part she'd played in her Maker's plans. Her mind was closed to me.

"Only because she's getting closer," I argued baselessly.

Thalia responded only with a shoulder shrug.

I looked back at Eric, frustrated with myself that I'd engaged in a bullheaded argument with Thalia. What the hell was wrong with me? I usually didn't waste the time or energy on such useless things. Eric hadn't even noticed, his body was completely still, but his mind was whirling so fast I couldn't catch even the basic direction of his thoughts. We all waited in silence. Eventually his expression cleared and he nodded as he reached a conclusion.

"Give it to me," he stated calmly, running his long fingers into my hair and curling them into a loose fist.

Pam flinched in my periphery but said nothing.

"What?" I asked as I turned only my eyes to look at Pam for a split second.

"Give it to me," he repeated. His voice was suddenly deeper and as his body melted against mine, his delicious scent saturated the air, making it difficult for me to think. He wasn't trying to manipulate me, his eyes were clear and direct, but whatever he was trying to get me to do was obviously very important to him.

I took a deep breath, enjoying his intensified scent and marveling that he had pheromones he could use to his advantage. I wondered if he knew he was doing it and if he had used them on me before when I'd been unable to cognitively perceive them. It wouldn't bother me if he had-we all used whatever we had to get what we wanted and needed-I was simply curious.

"Give me her call," he whispered and I hummed as his thumbs caressed the soft skin under my chin. "I feel it through our bond—the discomfort, the strain…the need. Give it all to me."

"How?" I asked in a breathless whisper, feeling like I was floating in his arms.

"Open your mind and place all of it in mine. You've done it before, Sookie. When we were leaving the cell downstairs, you gave me your weakness. You can do it again."

I tensed and slapped my hand on his chest, pushing him away so we were just barely touching. I needed to be able to think. Yes, I had done it before and I remembered distinctly how he'd struggled when I'd given him those weaknesses. He'd almost fallen out of the air.

"I can handle it," I said gently. "I have been handling it. One of us needs to be clear headed and I'm feeling all messed up anyway so it needs to be you."

"Do it, Sookie," he said, his voice tighter than before. I frowned, my jaw tensing as I tried to put more space between us. Eric didn't allow it, but he did change his approach to one that I had no ability to argue against. "If you are free from her influence, we'll have a better chance of denying any claim she might have on you."

I stared at him, processing his words and then looked at Pam again but she was closed down now, withholding any opinions. She would speak up if this were truly dangerous for Eric, so her silence was actually comforting.

He was right. I didn't like his plan, but he was right. This could keep us together.

"Is there any risk to you?" I asked, the tone of my voice demanded that he be honest with me.

"Negligible," he answered. "It's worth the small risk. All it could do would be to weaken me if I had to exert too much effort to contain it. However, you would feel that and could take it back upon yourself at any time."

If he'd told me there was no risk, I'd have known that he was not telling me the truth but he was and his logic destroyed any arguments I might have had. It was a good plan and one of the few options left to us at this point, but I'd be watching him closely.

I took a deep breath and, looking into his eyes, I harnessed her influence and then carefully guided it from my mind into his.

I knew the moment he felt it. He frowned and his hand twitched and then fisted, pulling tightly at my hair that was still twined in his fingers. He hunched his tall frame slightly and positioned himself so he stood between the doorway and myself. He could even sense the direction of her pull.

Listening carefully, I held my breath as he absorbed the sensation, integrated it into his own thoughts and then isolated it, blocking the steady stream of influence in a compartment all by itself as I'd seen him do before. I was able to do it with simple worries, but this was exponentially more challenging. The process was fascinating to witness and I promised myself that I would learn how to do this same thing the next time we had a few moments of peace.

But peace was not what we had right now. Disturbing images of Appius' face and eyes flashed in Eric's memories and I hated that he had to relive those horrible events to do this for me but I realized as I watched him that this is what we do for those we love. We accept sacrifices for their sakes.

I'd rarely allowed anyone to do this for me. I'd always refused Eric's attempts to sacrifice himself for me and I'd expected to feel horribly guilty for being an added burden, but instead, all I felt was gratitude and love for this amazing man.

The battle played over his strong face, his jaw tensing and eyes darkening, but once her call was isolated, we both relaxed. He'd done it. He'd completely locked down her influence so that she no longer held any immediate sway over either of us.

"Better?" Eric asked and I was reassured to hear the usual strength and confidence in his voice even if it wasn't exactly what he was feeling.

"Yes. Thank you," I said on a sigh, only then realizing how much effort I'd been putting into resisting her demands. "But…"

"No, Sookie. This is what I can and will do for you. It's a good strategy and I need you fully present with me, not focused on her."

Eric's eyes blazed, pinning me in place, demanding that I leave things as they were. I looked into his mind once again to see if what I was giving to him was weakening or hurting him in any way. When I found nothing, I kissed his jaw and relented.

"Good." He gave me a quick smile that briefly touched his blue eyes then he turned to Thalia. Her eyes were darker and more expressive than ever. "Go. Show her to the Throne Room when she arrives."

"I may not-" she began hesitantly.

Eric nodded and spared her from completing her sentence. "I am aware that you may have no choice tonight but you know what I will expect from you if you do."

Thalia nodded deeply and left the room, the light material of her gray skirt floating on the currents of air she created. Any anger I had for her faded with her admission. She would have to do as her maker commanded. She was in a difficult position right now, caught between her king and her maker.

"Pamela, you will take Emelina and-"

"I'm not leaving." Pam interjected.

"I never thought you would. Please give Emelina the address to my closest safe house and then meet us in the throne room."

"No. Please, Eric. I-" the beautiful dark-haired vampire began in a rich tenor voice that was ripe with a thick Spanish accent.

"No, Emily. Your presence here distracts me. You are not a warrior and I will worry about you. Go. I'll contact you when this has been resolved."

Emily's wide, dark eyes turned down at the edges, but she nodded deeply and then gave me a small smile of greeting before following Thalia.

"Weapons?" Pam asked.

"No. We'll use the weapons that are already in the room if we need them. We can't greet her armed."

Pam agreed and hurried to catch up with Emily.

"Ready?" Eric asked me.

"I won't go anywhere with her," I said firmly.

"If you must, I will go with you," he promised.

Relief coursed through me. "Can you do that?"

"Even if her blood holds more sway over you, _I_ am your husband. She cannot deny that. Pam will rule the kingdom in my absence."

"How can I ask that of you?"

He smiled. "Easily."

"Thank you," I whispered, pulling him close again and burrowing my face in his chest. We stayed entwined until I felt Eric strain.

"She's here. Her call is stronger. We must go."

I took a step and then realized that I was still in my bloody nightgown.

Eric frowned. "Can you change your clothes from here?"

"No. I think I've lost all of my fairy-based skills," I said and then waited a few second for him to understand that this also included my ability to teleport.

"I thought that might be the case," he said as he ran his long fingers across my cheek. A wide smile bloomed across his face when I frowned up at him in confusion. "You don't look like a fairy anymore," he clarified.

"What?" I said reflexively.

"Remember when you were in the iron cell downstairs and your fairy traits were suppressed?" He gestured below us with a sweep of his hand.

"Oh," I breathed and then smiled when Eric shared with me the visual image of my face-my original Sookie Stackhouse face. I looked down at my body and ran my hands over my shorter torso slightly larger breasts.

I actually heard him chuckle and I gave a short laugh too, glad for a moment of levity. Although he'd always tried to hide it, I'd been quite aware that he preferred the more voluptuous, innocent-looking version of myself. And to be honest, so did I.

"You know I don't care how you look, but I have missed that smile and these luscious lips," he purred as he tilted my head back and captured my mouth with his once again. I sighed into the kiss but it was over as soon as it began.

A shiver of unease passed through Eric as her call became even stronger. We needed to keep moving.

"Later," we said in unison.

Eric kissed me on the forehead and sped back to our bedroom to get me some clean clothes. I smiled and ran a fingertip over my sensitive lips as I watched him disappear.

Later. The word, "later," was no longer a designation of time for either of us, it was our promise to one another.

We _would_ have more time together.

I wasn't sure what form it would take, but I was sure that neither of us would accept anything else.


	65. Chapter 65

A/N: In the last six months, I've had a second eye surgery (that left me with double vision for three months) and grappled with my beloved father's stage 4 lymphoma diagnosis and a new understanding of the meaning of courage. I decided after fruitless efforts at writing that it was time to give my self permission to sit back and let other writers entertain me for a while and boy have I had fun. Thank you fan fiction writers for endless hours of relief from real-world concerns and thank you to anyone who is still out there ready to share this story with me.

I've broken this into two chapters to get it out to you faster and then expect one or two more chapters before we finally wrap this story up. The next part is done, I just have to proofread it.

Chapter 65 Last Stand (Part 1)

"Even if she is unable to make you behave as she desires, you still must show her respect," Eric warned me gently as we made our way through the hidden passageway to the Throne Room. His voice was soft as he tried to soothe my nerves, yet each syllable carried with it the undercurrents of tension we were both feeling. "This is one of the times when caution and restraint will be more powerful than a skillfully wielded sword."

I squeezed his hand as I gave a few small nods. This was my first foray into the vampire world as an insider. Until now, I hadn't been expected to follow their stringent guidelines of behavior and adherence to hierarchy.

What Eric was gently telling me, and what I already knew, was that those times were over now. I may not be a full-blooded vampire but the writing on the wall was clear—I now had enough vampire blood that I needed to fully embrace their—or should I say—_our_ culture.

"That means bowing to her, speaking with extreme care and controlling your temper," Eric said slowly with firm emphasis on the last three words.

When I didn't respond right away (more because I was simply overwhelmed than that I didn't agree with him) he stopped walking, released my hand and sunk down onto one knee so we were almost eye-to-eye. In many, this would appear to be a position of weakness, but on Eric, it only intensified my awareness of his physical power. He curled his fingers over my shoulders and ran them down to my biceps. I closed my eyes momentarily luxuriating in the feel of his hands on my skin.

"Listen to me very carefully, Sookie," Eric said when I opened my eyes. His words were slow and measured, the gentle tone had vanished and his eyes blazed with intensity. "This situation is far too serious for either of us to act out of reflex or emotion. We must make careful assessments before we respond to anything she says or does."

"I understand," I said truthfully, and I did, but the fact that I recognized what we needed to do didn't make it any easier to actually do it and it also didn't excuse the steps she'd taken to bring us to this point.

Eric ran his hands up and down my arms, "This is not so different from any number of situations I've been in before. I know how to handle this, Sookie. Follow my lead, keep your mind open to me and let me hold onto her call for as long as she allows it," Eric instructed.

For as long as she allows it…

For as long as _she_ allows it…

My mind echoed his words in a taunting voice and I clenched my teeth tightly together as my brewing anger bubbled closer to the surface. Bowing to the ancient vampire was one thing-she'd apparently earned the respect others showed her, although nothing _I_ saw in Rhodes told me why or how she'd done that other than by being an oracle who was older than dirt. Sure, she had a unique talent, but I was clueless as to what she could have possibly done to earn the near god-like status she held with the vampires.

For God's sake, the might of entire vampire clans bowed to her will even though she'd been just as caught off guard as the rest of us when Sophie-Anne's trial had been interrupted by the murder of a vampire ten feet away from her. Clearly she didn't see everything that would happen.

It struck me then and I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before. That event in Rhodes was probably the reason we were in this situation. She _didn't_ see everything that would happen…but with a telepath she would definitely hear a whole lot more.

I couldn't be angry that she'd let Thalia, another telepath, leave her centuries ago. Thalia deserved her freedom…but so did I.

Eric squeezed my arms gently, urging me from my thoughts and I looked deeply into his beautiful eyes.

"I know there has to be a good reason why you regard the Ancient Pythoness with such deference. You're too smart and too strong to do otherwise," I said, lowering my forehead to his and closing my eyes, "but it's really hard for me to do."

"I am happy to see you questioning things, but in this situation, you cannot. There are many reasons I defer to her," he said quietly, "but we don't have time to discuss them now. I need you to trust me in this, Sookie. I promise to explain everything later."

"I will," I said. I would follow his lead and offer her respect. "But I'm not going to simper, make nice or let her dictate our lives unless she's able to force us to do so."

Eric smiled widely at my stubborn response, then kissed my nose and stood up. He took my hand again in his and we continued on our way. "That's a relief. The only ass I ever want you to kiss is mine."

I laughed and then grew serious again. I didn't care if she _could_ see the future. In fact, if she could, she would have known exactly what and who she was dealing with when she decided to force her blood into me. Still she chose to do it, so I considered it a clear cut case of 'buyer beware.' She'd walked into this with her eyes wide open, metaphorically speaking, so I didn't have one drop of empathy to spare for her.

I simply didn't trust her.

Even if she couldn't use the maker's call to force me to stay with her, I was sure that she had other ways of manipulating us.

But would she?

That was the real question here.

A voice that was impossible to ignore rang through my head assuring me that she would demand everything she could get from us.

Why else would she have gone to all this trouble?

"You may not yet understand the intricacies of our world," Eric said, "but I do." What he didn't say, but what I felt coming from him, was that he still had hope, even with everything he knew about vampire politics.

Eric stopped walking again and he stoked my cheek with the pad of one thumb. "If everything had gone according to plan, I would be able to command you to stay calm and follow my lead, making this effortless for you and much safer for the both of us," he said and I caught the regret and the not so subtle warning coming from him.

The thought of the absolute loss of control had always terrified me and it still did, but now I was sure that in the right hands, the maker's command had surely saved the lives of countless young vampires.

"You are not a full vampire, but the blood you do have will make it harder for you to control your emotions. That's expected and will eventually pass, but for now, you must trust me."

"I do," I responded honestly and gave him a small smile, grateful for his understanding and his help as I adjusted to this new life. He could just as easily have been impatient with me.

"Then let me guide you." He gave me deep look and when I nodded, his lips slipped into a loving smile. He gently kissed my mouth and then turned to unlock the door to the Throne Room.

The moment his back was turned, I sensed a shift in the air behind me and felt something warm and unrelenting clamp down on my wrist. I spun around while trying to wrench my arm out of the grasp, but before I could process or achieve anything more, I found myself stumbling across the middle of a brightly lit and familiar room.

I turned around, trying to orient myself and identify what or who had taken me from Eric's side. My stomach sank when I found myself looking straight into the ageless eyes of my great-grandfather.

Niall bore down on me, fury such as I had never seen from him seeming to explode out of his body, causing his glamour to partially fail and giving me a momentary glimpse of his true and glorious form. I hated the very sight of him and his kind. His silky, long hair was gathered messily at the nape of his neck and his pale clothes, similar in cut and color to the ones he'd worn during the fairy war, were stained and torn and he held a bloodied sword in his hand.

"What have you done?" he seethed through clenched teeth while stepping quickly towards me. The threat implicit in his every movement was not a warning, but a terrible promise.

I moved away an equal measure and my feet stepped over the brightly colored head of the pelican woven into the grand rug that graced the middle of the large and stately Throne Room.

Why had he only taken me this far? He could have pulled me all the way back to Faery.

Across the wide space that I once detested but now welcomed as a part of my home, I saw that both sets of doors, my only means of escape without being able to fly, had been damaged from within. There was no doubt that it was the result of fairy magic. I recognized the patterns easily.

"Nothing! I haven't done anything! What are you talking about?" I responded reflexively as I glanced longingly at the sword Eric kept on the wall above the dais. It was only thirty feet away but without my ability to call objects to me or to teleport, it was too far away to access quickly.

"You deceived me! Tell me what you did that has poisoned the most precious of my bloodline and then tell me how to reverse the damage!" he demanded.

"Poisoned?" I mouthed silently. What was going on? I shook my head while at the same time calling to Eric through every channel at my disposal. Eric was close. He knew Niall had taken me and to where but he'd been unable to enter through the closest door and was making his way to the main entryway. It was a double door and he thought it might be easier to destroy.

As Eric sped down the corridor, his hold of the Ancient Pythoness' call slipped momentarily and her influence inundated me once again.

She was inside the building!

_She_ was inside the building and she was coming straight to me. My blood sang as the distance between us decreased.

Now that I was in mortal danger, the Ancient Pythoness' call grounded, empowered and calmed me. Even though my mind still wanted to reject her, my body and blood knew that it wasn't alone anymore. I didn't know how strong she was physically, but she was old, really old and in typical vampire terms that meant she had to be strong.

Hypocritical, I know, but she'd used me by giving me her blood without my consent; maybe we could use her to help us defeat Niall once and for all.

Eric absorbed her call again and replaced her strength with his own through our bond. He encouraged me to stall Niall and to avoid forcing his hand in any way. He was desperate not to test my body's ability to heal quickly in this situation.

I checked my expression. I didn't want Niall to know that not just one, but two of the world's most powerful and influential vampires were about to descend upon this very room and, not that he needed anything to make him more desirable to vampires, he was covered in blood. I viciously hoped that it was his own.

"I-I haven't done anything," I stuttered deliberately as I continued to back away from Niall, holding my hands up and eyes wide in a passively defensive posture. It would benefit me if he saw me as the weak human he had known long ago. Hell, I looked like her now and I might truly be weak in terms of defensive capabilities. I didn't even know if I could call fire to me anymore and without a sword, fire was what I relied upon to defend myself. Unfortunately, vampires tended to be extremely flammable so it might be suicide to try and use it.

Niall continued to press forward, his face contorted with rage and his free hand curled into terrifying claws. His skin was glowing brightly and his power seemed to permeate throughout every available space in the room. Although the sight of him like this was harrowing, I had to hide the bubble of inappropriate amusement that threatened to bust out of me at the sight of his well-honed control crumbling.

I was proud and supremely satisfied that I had somehow brought him to this point.

I deliberately stumbled backwards again, forcing my limbs to move with quick and panicked jerks. He didn't need to know that unlike Eric, I was confident that he couldn't cause me any lasting harm with the sword he carried. His magic on the other hand might be a different matter and that was what encouraged me to keep up the charade more than anything else.

As I stepped back, I took my first breath since entering the room.

The moment the air caressed my tongue I was hit by a wave of longing for the delicious scent coming from the fairy. I felt momentarily tipsy as I wiped the back of my hand across my wet mouth and felt my fangs run lightly across my skin, leaving a trail of blood in their wake but no wound.

I forced myself to take one more step away from Niall and this time I wasn't pretending when I stumbled a little, however, my balance and clarity of thought returned quickly and completely when my back met the wall behind me. I tensed to defend myself but noted that Niall hadn't moved any closer. He was standing like a stone sculpture, staring at my bloody hand, his brow furrowed in confusion.

I watched him carefully as the confusion faded and understanding and hope began to shine in his blue eyes.

Without thinking, I leaned forward and pushed off the wall with one foot so that I slammed into my great-grandfather, knocking both of us off our feet, growls vibrating in my chest. Niall teleported out of my grasp before we hit the floor and when I saw him next, he was standing above me with the tip of his sword pressed into the flesh directly above my heart.

So much for controlling my reactions. I was a fool for charging at him like that, but the look of hope in his eyes had stripped me of all my sanity. Anything that gave him hope was something I needed to avoid at all costs.

"You found someone who could use the cluviel dor," he said from above me and I had to bite my tongue to keep a long list of profanity and threats from leaving my mouth. Anything I said could confirm his theory and put Jason's family at risk.

I took a gamble instead and slapped his blade away with the palm of my right hand while rolling to the other side at the same time. Blood spurted from my palm and I left a grisly handprint on the carpet, but the next time I met his eyes, I was standing at least five feet away.

I let the smile I could no longer contain slide across my lips at the shocked expression on his beautiful face. Then I planted my feet and crossed my arms, noting only then that my chest was drenched with blood.

"What makes you think that?" I asked, raising one eyebrow like Eric. I was well aware that I was goading him now, but there was no point in playing the innocent anymore and surprising him had been fun-a whole lot of fun.

We both knew that I should be incapacitated from those two injuries but here I was, totally, completely and utterly unharmed with the exception of the loss of some blood. My body had healed itself the moment the sword had passed through my flesh. It was absolutely amazing and what was even more incredible was the fact that I had been given this gift all because of the love of a child.

The love of a child.

_I_ had once felt that kind of love for Niall and if he'd known at the time that I'd had a cluviel dor in my possession, I was sure he would have worked fervently to curry my favor, nurture my love and protect me at all costs. Instead, he'd beaten me down in every way he could and in the process, he'd thrown the magic of my love away.

I laughed at the enormity of his errors.

I laughed because standing here, I was glad that he'd taken the steps he had rather than having to find out how soulless he really was after I'd used the cluviel dor to help him, as I surely would have done if he'd asked. His betrayal was bad enough as things stood.

And I laughed because the cost of his manipulations had been so high that if I didn't laugh, I might shatter into a million jagged shards.

Niall's eyes flared with anger and I was momentarily distracted. A large group of minds had just approached the door to the room. I recognized some of them, but couldn't read others. Eric's thoughts told me that the Ancient Pythoness was with him. Her mind was apparently one that I couldn't read. Interesting.

I quickly refocused on Niall as he stepped towards me again. "Who, Sookie? Who can wield the power of the cluviel dor? Who else carries my blood and the spark of the fairies? Tell me!" he demanded and I noted that there was a tone of desperation that marred his usually placid voice.

Without even thinking, I lunged at him again. He would never use another member of my family the way he'd used me. I would not give him the chance to go anywhere near them.

Although I moved faster than I'd ever managed before, I barely flinched before Niall was fuming at me from ten feet away in the opposite direction. I spun around and growled deep in my chest, my limbs vibrating with the primal desire to destroy him.

I was done with pretending to be weak. I felt like a wild animal and it wasn't because I'd changed my form. I _was_ something wild now. Sera fae and vampire blood swam through my veins. _This_ was what I was now and Niall would learn that his actions had led to more than the dilemma that had brought him here in this disheveled state.

He had another problem.

He'd had a part in creating me.

"Sookie," he said in a long, drawn-out breath. The warning in his voice was one that any creature, living, dead or somewhere in between like I was, would be in error to ignore.

It barely registered with me.

"The wards on this building are still down. I can return during the day and—"

His words were cut off when the double doors groaned, cracked and then exploded into the room. I knew simply by the look on Niall's face that both Eric and the Ancient Pythoness had entered the room.

In his moment of distraction, I bore down on Niall again. This time, he defended himself with his sword with a long sweep of his arm. Even though I didn't think it could hurt me, my instincts still had me trying to dodge the blow.

The tip of his sword slid over my skin in a diagonal pattern from the back of my hip to my shoulder and when I turned back towards him to attack again, I ran straight into my husband's large frame.

I dodged around Eric only to find myself once again with my face inches from his back. He towered in front of me with taught, rippling muscles and a sword in each hand. The tone of the growl coming from his chest warned me to stay put.

I hissed out my frustration and glanced behind us. The Ancient Pythoness was already seated in a plush chair by the broken doorway. She was wearing a loose light-brown dress similar in form to Thalia's and her white hair floated around her head in an unruly halo. She was flanked on either side by twin female vampires in matching dresses, both with long copper-toned hair. Behind them stood a male and a female in modern clothes. Their skin tone and dark hair and eyes reminded me somewhat of Thalia.

My eyes snapped back in a double take to look at the man and woman more closely, sure that I couldn't possibly have seen what I thought I had upon first glance. A longer inspection told me that I had. These two were undeniably sera fae. My heart twisted in my chest. I'd been hoping for reinforcements, but instead, the Ancient Pythoness had brought me more enemies.

Further down from the doorway stood Thalia and Mr. Cataliades. I met the demon's gaze, wondering if Eric and I had been betrayed by one of the few individuals I'd trusted implicitly. His eyes were calm but they encouraged caution. He gave me a small nod and I knew in my gut that my fears were unfounded. He remained a friend to us.

The Ancient Pythoness appeared completely relaxed, much more so than when I saw her in Rhodes and she had a small smile on her face that made her look younger as well.

Trusting Eric to protect me from Niall, I studied the sera fae some more. I couldn't understand their presence here. Their proximity to the Ancient Pythoness confirmed that they had come with her, but nothing I knew about the sera fae explained why. Their minds were silent to me, but their expressions betrayed an intense anxiety about being so close to Niall and Eric although they seemed comfortable enough with the four vampires standing only feet from them.

I waited another moment and then focused back on Eric, stepping just far enough to the side so I could see Niall, but not far enough to upset or distract Eric. My hand ran down Eric's tense arm until I felt the pommel of his sword between his fingers. I gave it a slight tug but he would not relinquish it to me.

"Go. Find Pam and wait for me in the vault," Eric said and from the tone of his voice I was sure he was giving me a command. He wanted us to wait safely in the iron-lined vault where Niall couldn't reach us.

I gave him a disgusted look and a quiet tinkle of laughter erupted from behind us. Somehow I knew that it had come from the Ancient Pythoness. The sound made my shoulders tense. I didn't appreciate that she was laughing at us.

I didn't get the chance to refuse him or glare at her because Niall called the sword from Eric's dais to his hand and attacked us. We leapt into action. Eric pivoted so that he was in front of me again and defended us with his swords as I waited until I had an opening and then struck out at Niall with a spinning roundhouse kick aimed at his knees.

Niall teleported away, but not before I felt the pressure of a blade meeting my skin. Once again, only the wet blood told me that my thigh had been injured. Eric growled menacingly at Niall and the two warriors met again in a time-honored dance of bodies and weapons. Eric was beautiful and fearsome as he fought, his eyes alive with the joy of battle and his fangs gleaming brightly. In contrast, Niall was barely visible at all as he teleported from place to place, looking for any opening in Eric's defenses.

The fighting came to a sudden standstill after a few seconds when neither managed to injure the other.

"She has brought my people to ruin!" Niall seethed at the Ancient Pythoness while pointing the tip of his bloody blade at me. "You must make her undo whatever magic she has woven."

I glanced at Eric who was waiting for an opening in Niall's defenses and then back at the Ancient Pythoness. She was listening to Niall and for some reason her smile seemed to grow with every word he spoke.

Suddenly Eric relaxed and it took me a second to realize that he was no longer fighting against her call. There was a moment of silence from her and then she let me feel her emotions. I studied her for a few seconds and was shocked to find that I felt nothing disingenuous coming from her. She was truly being entertained by this situation.

The sera fae behind her appeared more relaxed now, almost hopeful, and that made me antsy. Just like with Niall, I was greatly unsettled by anything that made them hopeful. The Ancient Pythoness clearly had no intention of entering the fight, nor would she allow any of her companions to join in her stead. For some reason, the sera fae were following her lead and for that, I was grateful. Her passive approach could change at any moment but for right now, strange as it was, she was simply enjoying watching Niall lose his control as much as I had. I could only imagine what their shared history had been, but I was sure now that it hadn't been pretty.

Niall took another step towards us and Eric wrapped his fingers around my side, pushing me behind him again. I felt an ominous shift in the air and a moment later, more fairies appeared, scattered around the room and I suffered the most sickening moment of déjà vu from one of the worst nights of my life.

I recognized each and every one of the fairies, having spent multiple days with some of them before being able to give them my blood. My stomach turned as they charged us as one.

Eric handed me a blade, finally having accepted the fact that he could no longer keep me out of the fight. I took it and stepped to his side. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Pam and our guards enter the room at a run.

"Drop your weapon!" Preston said in a hard voice.

"No!" Eric and I growled in unison and surprisingly, the same response came from Niall too.

I flicked my eyes to Niall and found him facing the fairies in a defensive posture. Everyone in the room but the fairies had come to a standstill.

"Look at her!" Niall seethed. His movements, usually fluid and smooth, were tense and jerky. It didn't look good on him and it betrayed a deep seeded anxiety. "She used the cluviel dor! She lied to all of you! She could have saved all our people with its magic and instead she chose to save only herself!"

"Relinquish your weapon," Preston said firmly, and this time, it was clear that his words were meant only for Niall.

My eyes widened. If what I was seeing was right, we were witnessing an unprecedented fracture of loyalty within the sky fairy population. The blood Niall had on his clothes and sword when he arrived here was sky fairy blood!

"You are confused," Niall said in a soft and understanding voice, "I will not hold any of you accountable. You were poisoned and manipulated by a scrios in a fairy's body."

I held back a bark of laughter; clearly I wasn't the only one he regularly tried to manipulate.

Niall was desperate and he was distracted. This was my chance. I took a silent step to my left and swung my sword back, but Eric put out a hand and cautioned me to remain still, sure that we needed to see how this played out.

"Perhaps, but your reign has ended, Grandfather," Brigid, Claudine's older sister said as she stepped out from behind the protective barrier created by three large males. She was heavy with child. "You may go to the Summerlands with my oath that I will safeguard the future of our people now."

"No! Don't you see how she's altered your mind?" Niall asked her desperately.

"We do," she answered in a calm voice, glancing from me to the sera fae," and we are no longer blinded by history and hatred. This is a gift we have accepted. We have been given new blood and with it, new hope."

Niall flinched as though she'd slapped him and then he slowly rounded on Eric and me. His body radiated a posture of defeat and he made a show of dropping his swords. The other fairies relaxed but Eric and I didn't for we could see his eyes. He was far from ready to admit defeat.

With a sweep of his hand, Niall shot a burst of magic towards us. I lunged to the side, pushing Eric behind me and cast out a shield in front of us but Niall's magic was far stronger than mine. The wave of frigid cold swept through my meager shield and slammed into my body. Both Eric and I were thrown to the back of the room where we crashed into the wall and fell to the floor.

I jumped back up, but Eric was unable to join me. I gasped when I saw that although his eyes were open and focused, his head was bleeding profusely and his bare skin appeared to be frostbitten. He would have to wait to heal before he could fight again, but I was confident that he would heal.

I had lost my sword, so I quickly pulled Eric's sword out of his colder-than-normal hand. His fingers curled around mine and his eyes flicked towards the Ancient Pythoness who continued to sit in her seat, blindly observing the events before her as though they were occurring on a movie screen.

Hell, no.

I would not put us in the position of owing her a debt for saving us unless it was absolutely unavoidable. I'd thought she might intervene on her own, simply because her blood runs in my veins, but it was clear she had no intention of doing so. I shook my head slightly then spun around and lunged at Niall with everything I had.


	66. Chapter 66

A/N: Here it is! I've come out of writing hibernation. My father finished his chemotherapy and is in remission. I'm absolutely amazed at his turn-around. Thank you all for your patience!

Chapter 66 Last Stand Part 2

_I'd thought she might intervene on her own, simply because her blood runs in my veins, but it was clear she had no intention of doing so. I shook my head slightly then spun around and lunged at Niall with everything I had._

Niall's eyes widened slightly but he recovered quickly. I saw a flash of metal as the weapons he'd dropped only moments before appeared back in his hands. In the same moment, I dove to the side, anticipating that he would strike first. As my free hand and forearm met the rug halfway through my diving roll, I saw a flash of metal just miss me. I pushed the floor away and flipped back onto my feet, swinging my sword in the direction I thought Niall must have teleported to but met empty air because Niall was already behind me. I felt pressure on my neck followed by the disturbing sensation of warm blood saturating the upper chest of my shirt.

Teleportation came as naturally to him as breathing. Even though my skill with it had been ungainly compared to the ancient fairy behind me, I desperately missed having the ability. I felt naked without it and knew that I'd have my work cut out for me to beat him without it.

"What have you become?" Niall hissed in my ear. He had one arm wound tightly around my stomach and as he leaned in towards me, his soft hair brushed across my cheek and his lips touched my earlobe in what I prayed was an unintentional caress. I bared my teeth and growled as a shiver of disgust ran across my lower back. I much preferred the threat of his sword to this gentle sensation that I associated with Eric.

With a shake of my head, I cleared my emotions. He would do anything, use any strategy to get the upper hand but I couldn't let him. I reached out momentarily to my blood and realized that I could feel strength from both Eric and the Ancient Pythoness. Although neither were imposing anything upon me at the moment, their presence gave me strength. Niall could play every hand he had, but it wouldn't matter. I was going to win this fight.

With a flick of my wrist I drove my blade backwards, reveling in the sound of Niall's gasp as the metal just caught his side and then I slammed the back of my head into his face. Niall's grip loosened and I turned and swung my blade at his neck with every intention of removing it from his body.

Niall was too fast. He popped away and it took every bit of skill I'd honed over the years and all the speed and endurance that my new blood offered me to anticipate his movements and keep up with him. He'd never seemed less human to me. No human or any variant of human that I'd ever seen could move like he could. He truly was of the sky and he fought like the wind with his sword delivering violent strikes of lightning. When I finally caught up with him, the brutal clash of our swords made my muscles sing.

"Release my people from the bonds of your magic!" he demanded as he once again dodged my blow and appeared a few feet to my side.

Our eyes met and my fury and righteousness doubled. _He_ had the nerve to accuse _me_ of manipulating his people. _He_ was the one who had done everything in his power to manipulate me so that I'd turn into his very own fairy fountain of youth and in the process he'd made my life a living hell time and again. _He_ was here now, hurting the people I loved once more even though he'd promised just days ago that he would leave them alone once I'd given him everything I had and everything I was.

My hatred of him reached a new level, bolstered, I think, by my new blood. This blood had an incredible and undeniable desire to survive and fostered within me a selfishness I'd never experienced before. I welcomed it and fought for myself, for my need for revenge and for my own survival. I had a deep and bloody score to settle with Niall.

As we battled, the bits of information I'd seen and heard tonight slowly began falling into place in my mind and I understood what had gone wrong in Niall's plan.

Niall thought he'd had me tightly under his thumb when I went with him to Faery and he truly had, there was no doubt about that. That part of his plan worked perfectly. What he didn't expect was that I'd actually and freely want some small good of my own design to come out of the horrible situation. He'd thought I'd been too broken to have any piece of my soul left to guide me beyond the driving need to save my family and that was a fatal mistake. He never thought that I might give his people my blood with the intention of not only healing their bodies but their hearts as well.

I did what he demanded, but I adjusted my intention the tiniest bit. It had been, I figured after the fact, a futile act of defiance and self-preservation of my heart and soul, but miraculously, it had worked in ways I'd never anticipated.

The fairies had been poisoned not only by iron but also by hate, jealousy and narcissism for longer than Niall had been alive. It had begun long ago (by her own admission) with Pele and her sister. Now, their descendants, the fairies and the sera fae, were still carrying on the war. Both of the bloodlines were so caught up in the loop of violence that nobody was looking for a real way to stop the bloodshed.

Some of the fairies had been less damaged by the war than others. Claudine was truly unique and Preston seemed to be more tolerant and kind than most fairies I'd met, just like Eleu appeared to be unique among the sera fae. They were definitely in the minority, but they were proof that the fairies didn't have to be a cold-hearted race.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe that my silent but desperate plea had actually worked. Somehow, I'd been able to sway a few hearts and minds and this small change appeared to have crumbled the fragile foundation of power and loyalty upon which Niall ruled the fairies as their Prince.

True, the healing intent that led to his downfall had been created by my heart and carried in my blood, but Niall was the one who had forced my hand.

It was _his_ fault in the end-_his_ fault that his people had rejected his ways and his leadership and had joined together to depose him and I was elated that _I_ would be the one to connect the dots for him and help him see how he'd been the instrument of his own destruction.

I wasted no time in enlightening him.

Let's just say that he didn't take the news well.

Niall glared and threatened and I laughed and taunted while both our swords turned red and our clothes became heavy as they absorbed our combined blood.

Niall was more skilled with a sword, there was no doubt about that, and his ability to teleport initially negated any momentary advantages I might find, but unlike him, I neither felt nor suffered from my wounds and I could see him weakening ever-so slightly each time I broke through his defenses.

I celebrated each strike. Every time my blade sliced into his skin, I saw a flash of someone he'd hurt in his desperate effort to lead me toward becoming a sera fae. I saw Remy's tormented face, Hunter's sad eyes, Trey's lifeless body, Amelia's pale and tear-streaked cheeks, Bill's silver-poisoned skin and Claudine's gentle smile and rounded belly moments before she'd been murdered. I blamed Niall for each of their deaths as well as the loss of Jason's unborn baby. I even held him responsible for Colman and Claudette who wouldn't have been in our realm if Claudine hadn't been watching over me and for however Dermot might have suffered for warning me of Niall's impending attack.

I saw each drop of Niall's blood that splattered onto the carpet as payment for their suffering and for every second of physical and emotional torment I had borne at the hands of Neave and Lochlan. But even more gratifying was that each and every impact I felt straining my muscles and jarring my joints satisfied my rabid need to punish Niall for hurting Eric, Hunter and Pam during our last fight.

Finally having the opportunity to fight him face to face satisfied a desperate need I didn't even know I had that screamed for retribution and I found myself not wanting this to end. In fact, I was grateful that my sword wasn't made of iron. I would have hated to be denied the satisfaction and relief these moments were giving me.

I wasn't the only one in this fight who felt betrayed. Just as much anger and hatred fueled Niall as it did me, but in the end, I was the one who triumphed. I yelled out, truly vindicated when I finally and fully broke through his defenses and my sword pierced deeply into his stomach. Niall stumbled and collapsed onto one knee, a bright red patch blooming right below his heart.

The glow that was so inherent to him and that marked him as a healthy fairy faded, and within seconds, he looked like a much older man. I ignored the disquiet that sight caused me because at that moment, I knew that a chapter in my life was about to come to an end.

I would protect those I loved from this man.

I would end his life and in so doing, I would destroy my greatest enemy.

Niall collapsed onto both knees and his swords fell out of his shaking hands. He looked up at Preston and his granddaughter, Brigid, "You will not even defend me now?" he accused. "Everything I have done was so that our people might live."

I didn't look at them to see their response. My eyes were glued on my once beloved great-grandfather. I had been his plaything for so long and now, finally, he was mine.

I glanced over at Eric. I had felt his recovery from Niall's magic and now saw that he was standing a safe distance away from the Ancient Pythoness, flanked by Pam, James and Will. Their eyes all burned with desire for Niall's blood and desire to join the fight but Eric's slightly extended hand held them back. Eric gave me a small nod of support that I felt all the way in my stomach. He would let me end this on my own as he knew I needed to do.

I glanced at the Pythoness to see if she would afford me the same freedom. Her smile had faded at some point during our fight and she now had her head tilted slightly to the side and appeared to be preoccupied by some deep contemplation and I felt no interference from her.

The sera fae beside her wore expressions of hunger that mimicked Eric's bloodlust and I completely understood how they felt. They weren't hungry for Niall's blood, but for his death. Niall had hurt them and so many of the sera fae over the years that my suffering could only be a fraction of what they had borne.

Of course the sera fae weren't free from blame. From the little I knew it seemed that both sides had perpetuated the feud equally. But Niall had been especially brutal and if anyone had more reason to hate Niall than I did, it was the sera fae.

I looked back down at Niall. His hands were splayed on the floor beside his knees, supporting his weakening body as his blood soaked the rug beneath him. Killing him would be easy now and it would satisfy this savage need for vengeance that had propelled me through this fight.

He needed to die and it was simple justice that I be the one to take his life.

He owed me.

I frowned as his arms began to tremble, making him look strangely human. My sword felt a little heavier in my hand and I was suddenly aware of my sticky clothing clinging to my body and of the sound of air rushing in and out of my lungs as I caught my breath, but I ignored it.

It was my _responsibility_ to end this man. If he continued on, he would fracture the fairies even more than he already had and would undoubtedly continue to threaten my family.

No. There was no other solution.

So why was I just standing here instead of striking him down?

Unbidden, Niall's words rang through my mind. _"My people are dying. Soon there will be nothing left of us."_

I shook my head, trying to clear these thoughts. Sure, his people had been desperate, but that didn't excuse his actions.

Pele's words followed his. _"Never lose the guidance that your heart gives you."_

I ground my teeth together. I couldn't allow my heart to guide me in this situation. Feeling pity and empathy was a weakness that would probably get us all killed. Life had taught me that lesson the hard way.

Niall hadn't shown any true love for me throughout my life and he certainly hadn't shown any pity for me, for us, when he attacked us with Wu's army and threatened to kill nearly everyone I love. On the contrary, he'd broken me down in just the right way so that I would be ready to give him anything he wanted, including my own life to save Eric, Hunter and the other members of my extended family.

Those were not the actions of a man who loves nor of one who deserved my love.

And what of the fairies he was trying to save? If he loved them so much and was so upset that their future was bleak, then why did he lead Claudine and her unborn baby to the slaughter? They were of his blood for God's sake. He knew what would happen when Breandan found us, but he allowed it to occur anyway.

Niall was dangerous. Not only to me but to his own people and to Hunter, Eric and Jason's family. I couldn't let him go. I had to end his reign.

Yes, I had to end his reign, but did _I_ have to kill him? I'd already stripped him of his standing by defeating him and my blood and intent had turned some of his people against him. Was that enough?

I kept part of my attention on Niall, but turned the rest to Brigid and Preston.

"Why haven't you intervened?" I asked, in essence, repeating Niall's question.

"He forced you to give your blood. Now his is yours to take," she responded with the usual fairy nonchalance about violence as she gestured towards his neck.

"No!" I spat and I felt my fangs slide back into my gums as disgust roiled in my stomach. I'd just been purged of all that was fairy within me. The last thing I wanted to do was introduce it back into my system in any way.

"If she will not kill him, we lay claim on his life," the female sera fae said in a light, sweet voice that contrasted horribly with her words and sentiment.

Brigid looked at me and when I didn't say anything, a slight tremble ran through her body. She took a moment in which she seemed to be steeling herself and then she turned her gaze toward the sera fae and nodded.

That was unexpected.

Maybe allowing the sera fae to end Niall's reign as Prince of the Fairies would bring these two eternally warring lines of the fae back together. I didn't have much hope but there was a small chance that this might open the door to the possibility for reconciliation.

"I thought you valued life more than this, Sookie," Niall said, drawing my attention back to him as he sat up a little bit taller, "Adele believed every life was precious. I am surprised that you have so quickly disregarded her memory."

His words, meant to weaken me, only fed my hatred of him. He knew nothing of my Grandmother. He was just using her memory to guilt me into sparing his life. He had no right to ask anything of me. I, of course, understood what drove his efforts-he didn't want to face the sera fae and, truthfully, I couldn't blame him for fearing them. The thought of the humiliation and pain he might suffer at their hands actually made my stomach turn.

It was exactly what he deserved.

I lowered my sword and took a step back, stumbling slightly as I did so. My legs felt heavy for some reason.

"No!" he hissed, pushing himself onto his unsteady feet. He'd expected a quick death at my hands or maybe even a heartfelt pardon from me.

He'd get neither.

Preston approached Niall, kicked his former Prince's swords across the floor to another fairy and called a pair of lined iron handcuffs to his suddenly gloved hands.

"You will regret this," Niall spat at Preston and his eyes flickered to include me in his threat.

"We take no pleasure from this," Preston said seriously, "but we must make way for the future that you both have made possible. Your sacrifices will not be forgotten."

Preston placed the cuffs on Niall's wrists and removed the skin-toned gloves that Niall always wore. The effect was instantaneous. Niall lost what little strength he had and sunk to the floor again. It was a pathetic sight.

Preston called two other males to come forward and support Niall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the sera fae smile at one another in anticipation as they stepped towards us.

"Wait," I said, holding my hand up. The fairies and sera fae paused a few feet away and I crouched down in front of the man who had destroyed so many lives.

My blood still screamed for me to allow the sera fae to kill him in their own way, but a louder voice warned me that if I made that choice, I would be no better than the man in front of me.

I put down my sword, ignoring the low rumble coming from Eric, and wound my fingers into the lining that encased the iron handcuffs. With a quick pull, I tore open the lining on the bottom half of his right cuff so that the iron was exposed but didn't yet touch his skin.

He looked at me, waiting for my next move.

"You don't deserve this," I said in a cold, flat voice and then I retrieved my sword and stood up. As I did, I positioned the lining so that he could shove it back around the cuff if he wanted.

Niall had forced me into making a choice between my life and the lives of those I loved. Now he was the one facing an impossible choice and I took no pleasure in witnessing it.

Niall flinched and groaned as the cuffs shifted and the iron melted his skin on the side of his wrist. I forced myself not to cringe away from the putrid smell. I was the one making this happen so I needed to be strong enough to see it through.

His blue eyes met mine, darted to the sera fae and his fellow fairies and then back to me. Through the anger, hatred and pain on his face and I saw a flash of regret as he looked around the room, desperately seeking some way to avoid the repercussions of his actions. When he found none, he pinned me with a look of such hatred that I was sure he was about to jump up and attack again but instead, he clenched his teeth and pressed the iron into his open wound.

I closed my eyes for only a moment, remembering vividly the excruciating pain of iron burning my hand when I was in the iron-lined vault. The combination of the memory and the sounds of Niall's gasping agony had me swaying on my feet.

When I opened my eyes again, Eric was standing closely behind me and Niall had gone on to the Summerlands. His inert body lay prone at my feet and it broke down into a fine dust a few moments later, leaving only his clothes and the handcuffs behind.

Niall didn't deserve this easy out. He should have had to face all the horrors he'd so easily heaped upon others.

He didn't deserve it.

But I did.

I sagged with bone-deep relief.

It was done.


End file.
